BS  1515  .K5 

Kirk,  Harris  Elliott,  1872- 

1953. 
The  consuming  fire 


THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

mw  YORK  •   BOSTON  •   CHICAGO  •  DALLAS 
ATLANTA  •   SAN  FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  Limited 

LONDON  •   BOMBAY  •   CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNK 

THE  MACMILLAN  CO.  OF  CANADA,  Lm. 


THE 
CONSUMING  FIRE 


JUL  31  1919 


BY  ^y^ 

HARRIS  ELLIOTT  KIRK,  D.D. 


jl3eto  gotfe 

THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 
1919 

AU  rights  reserved 


Copyright,  1919 
By  the  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 


Set  up  and  electrotyped.     Published,  May,  1919 


TO 
THOMAS  BAXTER  GRESHAM 

A  SON  OF  CONSOLATION 


PREFACE 

It  is  too  early  to  formulate  a  philosophy  of  the 
great  war,  but  we  are  justified  in  speaking  of  some 
impressions  with  a  certain  degree  of  confidence.  One 
is  that  the  struggle  has  demonstrated  on  a  vast  scale 
the  truth  that  there  is  something  radically  wrong 
with  human  nature,  which  the  advance  of  intelligence 
and  the  refinements  of  civilization  have  not  been 
able  to  remedy.  It  brought  home  to  us  the 
monstrous  power  of  evil,  and  created  a  well-defined 
suspicion  that  the  control  of  life,  even  under  en- 
lightened forms  of  government,  is  not  wholly  in 
man's  power. 

Another  impression  is  that  the  successful  issue 
of  the  struggle  was  due  to  the  power  of  moral  prin- 
ciple over  intelligent  self-interest  and  material  ef- 
ficiency. No  doubt  the  Allied  nations  began  the  war 
with  mixed  motives  —  since  human  nature  cannot 
vote  unanimously  on  any  subject  —  economic  ques- 
tions and  self-preservation  had  much  to  do  with  it; 
still  as  the  conflict  developed  in  intensity,  and  the 
Teuton  matured  his  policies,  it  appeared  that  above 
all  other  considerations  this  was  a  struggle  between 

vii 


viii  PREFACE 

moral  principle  and  organized  evil.  Hatred  of  in- 
justice and  passion  for  the  right  sustained  the  Allied 
morale  through  four  years  of  bitter  suffering  and 
sacrifice ;  and  the  terrible  retribution  which  has  over- 
taken autocratic  Germany  is  a  demonstration  on  the 
field  of  history  that  material  efficiency  cannot  over- 
come moral  reality. 

A  third  impression,  less  obvious  just  now,  but  one 
that  is  certain  to  become  better  defined  as  the  compli- 
cations of  readjustment  tend  towards  a  clarification 
of  thought,  is  that  the  moral  passion  which  sustained 
the  Allied  nations  and  the  United  States  was  the 
direct  outcome  of  the  influence  of  Christianity  on 
Western  civilization.  No  struggle  has  partaken  so 
much  of  religious  experience.  It  has  been  a  holy 
war  —  the  principle  of  righteousness  against  the 
spirit  of  evil  —  and  this  impression  must  be  developed 
into  a  fixed  conviction  if  we  are  to  meet  the  re- 
sponsibilities of  the  reconstruction  period  in  an 
adequate  way.  The  war  has  released  multitudes  of 
people  from  the  tyranny  of  autocracy;  the  world 
has  been  made  safe  for  democracy;  but  if  this  is  to 
be  a  successful  experiment  democracy  must  derive 
its  sanctions  from  faith  in  God.  "  Where  there  is 
no  vision,  the  people  perish,"  they  perish  because 
they  cannot  resist  the  destructive  force  of  self- 
interest.  Democracy  must  be  stabilized  by  a  sanc- 
tion for  government  which  shall  maintain  respect 
for  constituted  authority  in  face  of  the  self-regard- 


PREFACE  ix 

ing  propensities  of  human  nature.  Without  the 
sentiment  of  justice  and  fair  dealing  such  inchoate 
movements  will  destroy  themselves ;  and  if  the  Allied 
nations  and  the  United  States  brought  the  great 
struggle  to  a  successful  issue  through  moral  prin- 
ciple, it  is  all  the  more  necessary  that  this  principle 
should  be  decisive  in  the  days  of  social  readjust- 
ment. 

I  have  written  this  book  in  order  to  show  that  the 
religious  aspect  of  the  question  is  fundamental  to 
all  the  rest.  What  the  world  needs  is  a  fresh  reali- 
zation of  God  in  history;  and  I  have  relied  less  on 
abstract  argument  than  upon  demonstrable  facts, 
and  turned  to  one  of  the  most  fascinating  and 
illuminating  epochs  of  the  past — the  eighth  century 
before  Christ,  which  was  distinguished  by  the  suc- 
cessful struggle  of  the  chosen  people  with  Assyria 
—  and  to  Isaiah,  the  supreme  prophet  of  the  Old 
Testament,  in  order  to  justify  the  view  that  in  the 
conflict  between  material  efficiency  and  moral  reality, 
righteousness  in  the  end  is  certain  to  prevail. 

A  study  of  this  character  is  of  the  most  timely 
importance ;  for  the  teaching  of  Isaiah  lends  itself 
with  singular  felicity  to  the  social  and  religious 
understanding  of  the  times.  He  lived  in  an  age 
which  in  most  aspects  of  its  thought  and  life  strik- 
ingly resembles  our  own.  There  is  little  diff^erence 
after  all  between  eighth  century  Judea  and  twentieth 
century  America.     The  same  moral  principles  were 


X  PREFACE 

involved,  and  the  same  issues  decided  on  the  hills  of 
Palestine,  which  after  four  years  of  suffering  and 
sacrifice  have  been  successfully  determined  on  the 
fields  of  France. 

Isaiah  faced  the  grave  problems  of  social  and 
religious  readjustment  that  are  at  present  our 
supreme  concern ;  he  brought  to  their  solution  a  firm 
belief  in  the  power  of  righteousness  over  organized 
and  defiant  evil ;  and  he  shows  better  than  any  of  his 
contemporaries  how  religious  faith  sustained  the 
morale  of  a  nation  under  the  stress  and  strain  of  a 
world  war. 

I  have  limited  the  study  to  the  essential  features 
of  the  prophecies  contained  in  the  first  thirty-nine 
chapters  of  the  book  of  Isaiah;  with  the  section 
beginning  at  the  fortieth  chapter,  which  has  a  dif- 
ferent historical  setting,  we  have  here  no  concern. 

I  have  had  access  to  the  best  authorities ;  what 
was  needed,  however,  was  not  detailed  information, 
but  a  spirit  for  the  interpretation  of  the  larger 
aspects  of  the  great  epoch;  and  if  I  have  been  at 
all  successful  I  owe  it  to  the  writings  of  Principal 
George  Adam  Smith,  whose  "  Historical  Geography 
of  the  Holy  Land,"  and  commentaries  on  Isaiah  and 
the  Book  of  the  Twelve  Prophets  have  been  my  con- 
stant and  loved  companions  for  years.  I  gladly 
confess  my   indebtedness   to   him. 

I  wish  to  thank  Mr.  William  R.  Moody,  whose 
invitation   to   deliver   a   course   of   lectures,   during 


PREFACE  xi 

the  Christian  Workers'  Conference,  at  Northfield, 
Mass.,  during  the  summer  of  1918  gave  me  an  op- 
portunity of  formulating  my  thoughts  on  the  sub- 
ject. I  am  particularly  indebted  to  my  colleague 
and  friend.  Rev.  Robert  S.  Axtell,  for  a  careful  read- 
ing of  the  proofs. 

H.  E.  K. 
The  Manse 
Franklin  Street  Presbyterian  Church 
Baltimore,  January,   1919. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTEE  PAGE 

I  Into  the  Arena  of  World  PoLiTicg    .      .        1 

II  The  Consecration  of  the  Timei    ...      22 

III  The  Staleness  of  the  Years    ....      40 

IV  The  Ironic  Realism  of  God     ....     62 
V  The  Doom  of  Material  Efficiency    .      .      81 

VI  The  Repose  of  a  Settled  Faith    .      .      .101 

VII  The  Stately  March  of  Providence    .      .    121 

VIII     The  Heritage  of  Tyre 144 

IX  The  Three  Questions    .      .      .      .      .      .163 


THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

CHAPTER  I 

INTO    THE    ARENA    OF    WORLD    POLITICS 

Isaiah  i:18:     "Come  now,   and  let  us   reason  together,  saith 
the  Lord." 

This  is  the  first  and  last  word  of  the  prophet  —  that 
religion  can  be  thought  about,  that  the  ways  of  provi- 
dence are  open  to  human  intelligence.  The  reason- 
ableness of  religion  was  the  particular  contention 
of  Isaiah.  The  chief  fault  he  found  with  the  people 
of  his  time  was  that  they  did  not  like  to  think  very 
seriously  about  religious  matters ;  and  the  prophet 
labored  in  and  out  of  season  to  make  them  face  the 
serious  but  salutary  facts  of  everyday  life. 

This  enables  us  to  understand  the  function  of  a 
prophet.  The  popular  notion  of  a  prophet  is  that  he 
is  a  predictor  of  future  events ;  and  while  prediction 
is  undoubtedly  one  of  his  duties,  his  real  function  is 
to  deliver  the  message  of  God.  He  furnishes  spirit- 
ual interpretations  of  secular  events,  explains  the 
meaning  of  history,  and  justifies  the  ways  of  God 
to  men.     In  other  words,  a  prophet  gives  a  reliable 


2  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

philosophy  of  history  in  the  terms  of  man's  spiritual 
experience. 

On  this  account  the  relation  of  prophecy  to  his- 
tory is  of  the  first  importance.  A  prophet  brings 
God's  message  to  men  of  his  time;  his  teaching  of 
course  develops  principles  that  bear  upon  all  time, 
still  these  principles  cannot  become  intelligible  un- 
til we  have  ascertained  his  precise  relation  to  his  own 
age.  The  meaning  of  prophecy  becomes  clear  only 
in  relation  to  history.  We  can  no  more  comprehend 
Isaiah's  teaching  apart  from  his  times  than  we  can 
understand  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States 
out  of  relation  to  the  early  history  of  America. 
That  is  why  we  must  know  something  of  Isaiah's 
world  before  we  can  understand  his  message. 

Isaiah's  period  extends  from  b.  c.  740,  the  year 
that  king  Uzziah  died,  to  the  close  of  the  century. 
Micah  was  his  contemporary  in  Judah,  while  Amos 
and  Hosea  were  concerned  with  the  same  problems 
in  the  northern  kingdom  of  Israel.  So  far  as  known, 
Isaiah  was  a  native  of  Jerusalem ;  he  came  of  an 
aristocratic  if  not  a  princely  family,  and  was  a  life 
long  intimate  of  the  ruling  classes  of  the  nation.  His 
ministry  of  some  forty  years  was  entirely  devoted  to 
the  interests  of  the  southern  kingdom  of  Judah  whose 
capital  city  was  Jerusalem. 

The  best  introduction  to  a  prophet  is  a  study  of 
the  world  in  which  he  was  brought  up ;  the  political, 
social,  and  religious  conditions  of  the  time  to  which 


THE  ARENA  OF  WORLD  POLITICS        S 

he  brought  his  illuminating  and  constructive  inter- 
pretations. Let  us  begin  with  a  broad  generaliza- 
tion: all  great  historic  movements  are  due  to  the 
collision  of  ideas.  Our  great  war  was  the  result  of 
a  collision  of  opposite  notions  of  national  develop- 
ment, morals,  and  civilization.  Such  a  conflict  is 
never  caused  by  single  events ;  while  it  may  have  been 
occasioned  by  a  comparatively  unimportant  incident, 
its  cause  is  to  be  explained  by  principles.  Such  prin- 
ciples slowly  mature  until  they  attain  an  explosive 
force,  and  when  they  reach  this  dangerous  state  they 
produce  such  things  as  we  have  seen  in  our  time. 
The  events  which  made  up  the  dramatic  history  of 
Isaiah's  time  were  caused  by  a  similar  development 
and  explosion  of  ideas.  Historians  may  easily  sit 
down  after  the  event  and  explain  its  history  in  terms 
of  principles,  just  as  a  century  later  a  clear  under- 
standing of  all  the  principles  involved  in  the  great 
war  will  be  more  easily  gained  than  now ;  but  herein 
lies  the  singular  superiority  of  the  prophet  that  he 
sees  the  trend  of  events  before  the}^  fully  ripen.  The 
historian  at  his  best  is  a  backward  looking  man,  the 
prophet  on  the  contrary  is  a  forward  looking  man. 
He  stands  on  the  world's  ramparts  and  looking  out 
over  the  feverish  life  of  peoples,  prophesies  the 
course  that  things  will  take.  He  is  able  to  do  this 
because  above  the  passions  of  men  and  the  conflicts 
of  nations  he  sees  —  God.  This  is  one  reason  why 
we  can  never  get  along  without  prophets,  for  through 


4  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

their  eyes  we  may  look  above  and  beyond  the  events 
of  the  moment  and  discern  the  drift  of  the  times, 
understand  the  significance  of  the  principles  involved 
and  stabilize  our  faith  by  a  vision  of  God  on  the 
field  of  history.  I  believe  .that  in  these  times  of  read- 
justment no  better  discipline  for  our  statesmen  and 
diplomats  could  be  suggested  than  a  thorough  study 
of  Isaiah  and  his  world. 

That  which  makes  him  stand  out  as  the  supreme 
prophet  of  the  Old  Testament  is  the  coincidence  of 
two  tremendous  ideas :  his  world  and  his  God.  Some- 
times God  ordains  that  great  ideas  should  come  to- 
gether in  a  man's  mind;  and  when  this  happens  the 
course  of  history  is  changed.  The  union  of  these 
vast  conceptions  in  the  teaching  of  Isaiah  consti- 
tutes a  fresh  departure  of  the  human  race  on  the 
pathway  of  its  destiny.  Other  men  had  seen  these 
things,  "  as  through  a  glass  darkly  " ;  Amos  and 
Hosea  for  instance  saw  them  clearly  and  in  relation, 
but  neither  had  opportunity  to  apply  them  to  the 
world  situation.  But  Isaiah  not  only  saw  them  dis- 
tinctly but  boldly  applied  them  to  the  interpreta- 
tion of  his  times,  and  so  accurately  did  he  sense  the 
drift  of  things  that  history  vindicated  him.  To  no 
man  was  it  given  to  see  so  many  of  his  prophecies 
fulfilled;  and  that  not  because  of  any  magical  in- 
fluence upon  events,  but  on  account  of  the  sanity 
of  a  pure  spiritual  passion  and  a  faith  sustained  at 
all  points  by  a  reasonable  effort  to  understand  the 


THE  ARENA  OF  WORLD  POLITICS       5 

mind  of  God.     He  is  a  striking  example  of  the  truth 
that  a  clean  heart  makes  a  clear  mind. 

Isaiah  began  to  prophesy,  as  George  Adam  Smith 
remarks,  at  a  period  when  for  the  first  time  in  his- 
tory the  idea  of  a  world  set  over  against  a  nation 
v.'as  breaking  in  on  the  minds  of  peoples.  It  is  diffi- 
cult for  us  who  live  in  a  world  compacted  together 
by  steam  and  electricity  to  realize  the  isolation 
of  ancient  peoples.  We  are  quite  familiar  with  the 
difference  between  nationalism  and  internationalism. 
Nationalism  moves  within  the  fixed  limits  of  one 
people  who,  while  recognizing  the  existence  of  other 
peoples,  do  not  necessarily  conceive  themselves  as 
having  any  important  concern  for  those  without  the 
pale.  The  ancient  world  was  broken  up  in  this 
way  between  Jews  and  Gentiles,  Greeks  and  Barbar- 
ians, Romans  and  Provincials.  Internationalism  on 
the  other  hand  is  based  upon  the  recognition  of 
relationships,  either  for  weal  or  woe,  among  peoples 
of  different  races  and  countries ;  and  this  phase  was 
slow  to  develop  in  the  ancient  world  because  of  a 
series  of  stubborn  barriers  constituted  chiefly  of 
racial  prejudices  which  blocked  the  way.  The  nor- 
mal basis  for  society  before  Isaiah's  time  was  tribal 
or  national ;  and  by  nation  one  usually  meant  a  single 
city,  a  city-state.  Each  little  kingdom  in  Palestine, 
for  instance,  was  a  fortified  city,  with  a  small  prov- 
ince lying  immediately  about  it,  and  the  tribal  idea 
still  dominated  the  thinking  of  those  peoples,  in  spite 


6  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

of  their  ocasional  contact  with  larger  units  like 
Egypt  or  Assyria.  War  as  they  understood  it 
was  tribal  or  limited  to  strife  between  small  cities 
or  kingdoms,  situated  for  the  most  part  in  their 
immediate  vicinity.  This  provincial  state  of  mind, 
encouraged  by  their  limited  conception  of  religion, 
prevailed  with  hardly  a  check  until  the  middle  of  the 
eighth  century  b.  c. 

At  that  time,  however,  which  coincides  with  Isaiah's 
call,  great  and  rapid  changes  took  place;  the  con- 
ception of  a  world  organization  quite  different  from 
the  familiar  national  idea  was  brought  to  full  con- 
sciousness, and  was  occasioned  as  it  usually  is  by  the 
menace  of  a  terrible  and  devastating  war.  The 
small  city-state  found  itself  confronted  by  the  big 
state,  and  little  nations  were  threatened  with  ex- 
tinction by  a  great  empire. 

It  seems  almost  inevitable  that  great  social  and 
political  changes  such  as  are  occasioned  by  war 
should  set  men  to  thinking  of  entities  larger  and 
more  enduring  than  those  associated  with  national- 
ism. Sometimes  it  leads  to  the  substitution  of  ideal 
conditions  for  visible  relations  as  with  the  Stoic  con- 
ception of  universal  brotherhood,  which  came  to  him 
when  Alexander  the  Great  knocked  his  little  world 
to  bits ;  or  when  the  persecutions  of  Antiochus 
Epiphanes  set  the  devout  Jew  to  dreaming  of  a 
catastrophic  establishment  of  the  kingdom  of  God. 
Such  changes  of  view  rarely   come  without   altered 


THE  ARENA  OF  WORLD  POLITICS        7 

social  conditions  and  painful  experiences.  The 
breaking  in  of  this  tremendous  idea  on  the  Hebrew 
consciousness  was  an  essential  element  in  education, 
but  it  was  a  costly  and  painful  experience,  the  con- 
sequences of  which  were  never  forgotten. 

Such  a  change  has  come  over  the  modern  world. 
A  great  and  terrible  war  has  once  again  driven 
peoples  out  of  their  racial  seclusion  and  national  iso- 
lation to  contemplate  a  League  of  Nations  which 
shall  make  wars  to  cease  and  bring  in  that  era  of 
brotherhood,  the  advent  of  which  has  haunted  the 
n)ind  of  man  since  the  dawn  of  history. 

While  we  had  long  been  familiar  with  the  idea 
of  empire,  we  still  held  this  in  harmonious  relation 
to  the  notion  and  the  right  to  exist  of  the  small 
state.  But  since  Germany  with  Assyrian-like  bru- 
t^dity  asserted  the  right  of  world  dominion,  to- 
gether with  the  heathenish  doctrine  that  small  states 
have  no  rights  which  strong  states  are  bound  to 
respect,  we  have  again  reached  a  position  where  the 
small  state  can  no  longer  hope  to  exist  without  power- 
ful and  offensive  alliances  with  larger  and  stronger 
entities. 

So  was  it  in  Isaiah's  time.  Beginning  with 
Ass3'ria's  ruthless  assertion  of  the  right  to  rule  the 
world,  the  peoples  of  Palestine  definitely  and  per- 
manently came  within  the  sphere  of  world  politics, 
and  to  the  end  of  their  national  career  the  chosen 
people    were    under    the    dominion    of    one    or    the 


8  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

other  of  great  world  empires  whose  history  covers 
the  last  seven  centuries  of  the  pre-Christian  period: 
Assyria,  Babylon,  Persia,  Greece,  and  Rome.  This 
was  the  meaning,  dimly  understood  by  the  states- 
men of  Isaiah's  time,  of  the  half-century  of  prepara- 
tion on  the  part  of  Assyria.  The  people  did  not 
see  it,  any  more  than  most  of  us  understood  the  sig- 
nificance of  Germany's  military  policy;  and  even 
when  it  was  apprehended,  the  threatened  nations 
did  not  like  to  admit  it;  but  Isaiah  saw  it  clearly 
and  concretely.  lie  knew  exactly  what  it  would 
mean  to  these  little  kingdoms,  hiding  there  in  fancied 
seclusion  in  the  deep  valleys  of  Palestine.  The  age 
of  the  small,  isolated  state  was  gone  forever;  the 
chosen  people,  for  weal  or  woe,  were  about  to  leave 
the  nest  of  provincial  seclusion  for  the  terrible  arena 
of  world  politics.  They  were  drifting  blindly  into 
dangerous  waters,  without  pilots  or  adequate  knowl- 
edge of  navigation.  They  were  especially  barren  of 
great  ideas  and  singularly  obtuse  to  the  most  glaring 
facts  of  the  time.  In  any  event  it  meant  that  they 
were  going  into  a  larger  world;  a  vaster  experience 
awaited  them  with  grave  consequences  to  their  re- 
ligious destiny ;  and  it  was  his  clear  intuition  of  the 
momentous  change  impending  that  gave  to  our  states- 
manlike seer  his  tremendous  command  over  a  world 
situation.  This  was  enough  to  make  him  a  states- 
man, a  diplomat,  or  even  a  great  ruler ;  but  not 
enough  to  make  him  a  prophet.     Another  idea  was 


THE  ARENA  OF  WORLD  POLITICS        9 

required  to  fit  him  for  the  role  of  spiritual  leader, 
an  idea  that  was  to  come  into  the  sharpest  collision 
with  the  notion  of  world  expansion,  and  that  is  to 
be  found  in  Isaiah's  God. 

From  the  days  of  Moses  the  chosen  people  had 
been  theoretical  monotheists ;  that  is,  they  believed 
in  one  God  but  they  were  slow  to  follow  up  their 
opportunity  by  the  assertion  of  the  non-existence  and 
worthlessness  of  other  gods ;  nor  were  they  able  save 
in  vague  and  inchoate  ways  to  divine  the  meaning  of 
a  w^orld  providence.  Idolatry  existed  side  by  side 
with  the  religion  of  Jehovah ;  it  was  a  constant 
and  always  a  disturbing  element  in  the  popular  re- 
ligion ;  and  the  ordinary  Hebrew,  be  he  prince  or 
peasant,  was  quite  content  to  regard  Jehovah  as  a 
private  and  tribal  Deity.  So  long  as  they  were  con- 
tent with  this  view,  it  was  practically  impossible  for 
them  to  think  of  a  Divine  providence  effective  in  re- 
gions beyond  the  promised  land.  It  was  enough 
that  Jehovah  was  their  private  Deity,  the  guardian 
of  their  land,  and  this  selfish  notion  shrunk  the 
notion  of  God  to  their  own  small  dimensions.  In 
their  tribal  wars,  which  were  many,  they  saw  chiefly 
a  struggle  between  their  God  and  those  of  other  peo- 
ples. The  idea  of  a  ruling  providence,  co-extensive 
with  the  world,  was  not  then  a  vital  element  in  their 
faith,  and  this  of  course  in  spite  of  their  prophets 
and  lawgivers. 

One  reason  why  the  faith  of  the  ordinary  Hebrew 


10  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

broke  down  so  soon  as  the  terrible  Assyrian  invaded 
Palestine  was  the  fear,  that  after  all,  the  gods  of 
Assyria  were  more  powerful  than  the  God  of  the 
chosen  people.  It  seemed  to  cast  suspicion  upon  the 
ancient  tradition  that  Jehovah  would  care  for  His 
people;  it  drove  into  their  weak  minds  a  disturbing 
doubt  as  to  God's  power;  and  in  those  days  a  God 
without  power  would  soon  be  a  God  without  worship- 
pers. To  some,  like  Ahaz,  it  seemed  expedient  in  the 
interest  of  greater  national  security  to  add  the  gods 
of  other  and  successful  nations  —  Damascus,  for  in- 
stance —  to  their  own  religion. 

When  the  Assyrian  storm  broke  upon  the  land 
it  at  once  raised  the  question :  Who  is  the  real  God 
of  the  world?  Who  controls  events  beyond  the  fron- 
tiers of  the  land  of  promise?  Is  it  Jehovah,  or  some 
other  deity?  The  question  could  not  be  fully  an- 
swered by  reaffirming  the  old  tribal  idea,  for  the 
domain  of  the  tribal  deity  had  been  invaded  from 
without.  What  was  wanted,  though  inchoately  un- 
derstood was  some  assurance  that  Jehovah  was  the 
ruler  of  the  world;  not  of  Palestine  only,  but  also 
of  Egypt  and  Mesopotamia. 

How  then  did  Isaiah  meet  this  demand?  We  must 
keep  clearly  in  mind  that  the  essential  element  in 
deity  for  the  ancient  mind  was  power.  Character 
as  we  learn  from  Greek  mythology  was  a  non-essen- 
tial;  but  power  a  god  must  have,  if  he  was  to  have 


THE  ARENA  OF  WORLD  POLITICS     11 

devotees ;  and  it  was  because  the  power  of  Israel's 
God  seemed  broken  by  the  Assyrian  menace  that  the 
people  were  prostrate  before  it.  Now  Isaiah's  bold 
originality  lies  in  this,  that  while  he  clearly  asserts 
a  world  providence,  calmly  speaking  of  Assyria  as 
God's  ax,  God's  rod,  God's  razor  for  the  pruning 
of  Israel's  superfluous  growths,  he  nowhere  bases 
his  faith  in  providence  on  the  old  pagan  doctrine 
of  bare  power,  but  goes  back  behind  power  to  the 
character  which  conditions  its  exercise,  and  derives 
his  conception  of  power  from  the  righteousness  of 
God.  Other  prophets  of  course  had  held  this  view; 
it  had  always  been  the  faith  of  Israel's  spiritual 
leaders,  but  it  was  left  to  Isaiah  to  apply  it  vigor- 
ously to  the  interpretation  of  a  world  situation;  he 
made  it  concrete,  practical,  and  terribly  realistic. 
He  affirmed  the  truth  that  world-control  was  based 
not  upon  material  successes  but  moral  reality.  He 
held  the  supreme  faith  that  God  was  righteous,  and 
that  righteousness  only  was  reality;  he  summoned 
to  that  changeless  tribunal  all  nations  and  peoples 
and  boldly  founded  his  doctrine  of  providence  upon 
the  character  of  Jehovah.  He  held  to  this  faith 
in  the  face  of  all  the  changes  and  trials  of  forty 
years  of  Assyrian  ruthlcssness.  This  made  him  the 
greatest  constructive  statesman  of  the  chosen  people, 
but  it  also  made  liim  the  supreme  prophet  of  all  time ; 
and  it  is  immensely  illuminating  in  the  present  crisis 


12  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

of  social  readjustment,  when  so  many  of  the  prob- 
lems of  Isaiah's  time  are  calling  for  present-day 
solution  to  notice  the  basis  of  his  faith. 

Isaiah's  statesmanship  rested  squarely  and  con- 
sciously on  his  religion.  His  faith  in  providence  — 
which  controlled  events  and  used  the  policies  of  na- 
tions for  purposes  of  the  Divine  will  —  rested  upon 
two  great  convictions :  righteousness  and  grace ;  and 
both  these  ideas,  as  we  have  seen,  sharply  distin- 
guished his  conception  of  God  from  that  not  only  of 
the  pagan,  but  also  from  that  of  the  masses  of  the 
Hebrew  people. 

The  pagan  believed  that  sovereignty  rested  on 
force,  and  force  only.  A  god  was  worshipped, 
feared  and  served  in  proportion  to  his  ability  to 
demonstrate  his  power  over  men.  But  while  Isaiah 
asserted  the  fact  of  God's  power,  he  grounded  it 
always  upon  God's  character.  God  must  rule  the 
world,  said  the  prophet,  because  He  is  righteous. 
Only  righteousness  is  real,  and  only  that  which  con- 
forms to  righteousness  can  last.  Everywhere  the 
world  was  moving,  apparently  in  accord  with  the  will 
of  man ;  but  over  and  beyond  it  he  saw  the  righteous 
purpose  of  Jehovah.  Righteousness  was  not  con- 
ceived as  a  static  quality  of  an  absentee  deity,  living 
in  some  Epicurean  paradise  far  above  the  flaming 
walls  of  the  world ;  but  it  was  dynamic,  intensely  ac- 
tive, and  close  to  man's  heart  and  life.  The  eyes  of 
glory  were   looking   in   upon   the   council   chamber,' 


THE  ARENA  OF  WORLD  POLITICS     13 

scanning  every  state  paper,  and  noting  the  thoughts 
and  intents  of  the  soul. 

This  faith  in  the  all-pervasive  power  of  righteous- 
ness was  linked  to  another  great  conviction  that 
God  was  gracious.  The  stern  unapproachable  holi- 
ness of  Jehovah  was  tempered  by  the  marvelous  loving 
kindness  of  the  Lord.  No  prophet  has  spoken  with 
greater  positiveness  of  the  righteousness  of  God,  yet 
none  has  excelled  him  in  the  tenderness  and  gracious- 
ness  of  his  appeal.  Over  and  over  again  he  asserted 
that  evil  nations  like  Assyria  might,  owing  to  the 
accidents  of  power,  do  any  amount  of  harm  to 
weaker  peoples;  injustice  and  wickedness  might,  for 
a  season,  be  successful,  but  it  was  only  temporary. 
The  real  test  of  a  nation  was  not  actuality,  measured 
by  material  accumulations  and  brute  force ;  but  real- 
ity, a  state  determined  by  moral  relations.  The  only 
reality  on  this  planet  was  righteousness.  Because 
God  was  righteous.  He  was  sovereign ;  because  God's 
people  were  under  His  protection,  they  could  not 
be  destroyed.  Only  the  real,  what  was  in  harmony 
with  the  nature  and  purposes  of  Jehovah,  was  per- 
manent. With  God,  visible  accumulations,  athe- 
istic impudence,  and  arrogant  pride,  were  but  mate- 
rials for  a  judgment  day  bonfire. 

Isaiah  assured  the  people  of  his  country  that  no 
matter  how  deeply  they  might  become  involved  in 
the  terrible  struggle,  he  was  certain  that  righteous- 
ness would  prevail  in  the  end  because  it  was  guided 


14  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

by  the  spirit  of  grace,  by  the  loving  kindness  of  the 
Lord.  God  was  controlling  this  mighty  world  move- 
ment in  behalf  of  the  spiritual  interests  of  His  peo- 
ple; He  was  sifting  the  chaff  from  the  wheat.  As- 
syria with  her  boundless  ambitions,  her  seemingly 
irresistible  armies,  her  arrogant  claim  to  world  do- 
minion was  just  God's  ax,  an  instrument  in  the  Divine 
hand.  When  He  finished  with  it.  He  would  discard 
it :  Assyria  could  not  move  a  step  beyond  the  Divine 
purpose.  It  was  this  tremendous  faith  that  made  the 
prophet  the  rallying  point  in  those  terrible  times ; 
how  he  gained  this  faith  we  shall  have  occasion  to 
see  later;  it  remains  now  to  ask:  How  so  unimportant 
a  people  as  the  Israelites  became  involved  in  world 
politics?  And  the  answer  is  found  in  the  peculiar 
geographical  position  of  the  Palestinian  states. 

The  world  of  the  eighth  century  before  Christ 
was  dominated  by  two  entirely  different  conceptions 
of  civilization:  one  founded  upon  mind,  the  other 
upon  matter. 

The  civilization  of  Egypt  was  based  upon  the  mind, 
that  of  Assyria  upon  a  machine-like  organization  of 
material  forces ;  and  it  was  inevitable  that  these  two 
conceptions  should  eventually  come  into  deadly  con- 
flict. The  distance  between  the  Nile  and  the  Mesopo- 
tamian  valleys,  homes  of  these  antagonistic  civiliza- 
tions, was  only  four  hundred  and  ninety  miles,  and 
the  only  possible  line  of  communication  between  them 
passed  through  Palestine.     Now  Palestine,  owing  to 


THE  ARENA  OF  WORLD  POLITICS      15 

its  peculiar  topography,  was  singularly  constructed 
for  the  production  of  great  liistoric  results.  It 
could  not  be  invaded  from  the  east  since  it  was  pro- 
tected by  a  mountain  barrier,  flanked  by  the  Arabian 
desert;  neither  could  it  be  approached  from  the  sea 
because  there  was  no  natural  harbor  south  of  Mount 
Carmel.  The  only  possible  way  through  it  ran 
from  north  to  south,  around  the  sea  of  Galilee, 
across  the  great  plain  of  Esdraelon  —  the  battle- 
field of  Palestine  —  and  down  the  maritime  plain. 
Northern  Israel  lay  close  to  this  natural  highway, 
and  was  the  first  to  become  involved,  while  Judah, 
more  remote  in  its  mountain  fastness,  was  the  last 
to  feel  the  pressure  of  the  world  movement.  The 
people  of  God  were  by  these  peculiar  topographical 
features  placed  between  the  upper  and  nether  mill- 
stone of  the  Nile  and  Mesopotamian  valleys.  The 
only  way  for  an  army  of  conquest  to  reach  Egypt 
from  Mesopotamia  was  to  hammer  its  way  through 
these  little  Palestinian  states.  The  position  of  Israel 
and  Judah  was  in  many  respects  like  that  of  Bel- 
gium, and  each  country  in  its  own  way  has  furnished 
battlefields  on  which  have  been  decided  the  fate  of 
civilizations. 

For  many  years  Assyria  had  been  quietly  getting 
ready  for  the  unavoidable  conflict;  the  sinful  lust 
for  world  power  dominated  her  evil  heart,  and  she 
slow^ly  but  surely  accumulated  men,  munitions,  and 
treasure,  and  made  plans  for  the  subjugation  of  the 


16  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

only  remaining  empire  capable  of  disputing  the 
claim,  namely  Egj^pt.  But  to  reach  Egypt  she  was 
compelled  to  pass  through  Syria  and  Palestine. 
What  would  be  the  attitude  of  these  small  nations 
towards  such  a  movement?  It  is  clear  from  a  con- 
sideration of  the  whole  campaign  that  Assyria  began 
her  forward  movement  with  a  fatal  miscalculation. 
Small  states  have  little  offensive  power,  but  in  their 
own  territory  they  have  an  immense  defensive  force. 
In  all  probability  Germany's  miscalculation  with 
reference  to  Belgium  was  one  of  the  prime  causes  of 
her  ultimate  defeat.  And  what  took  place  in  Bel- 
gium at  the  beginning  of  the  war,  happened  in  Pales- 
tine in  the  opening  of  the  Assyrian  campaign.  She 
began  her  westward  thrust  toward  Egypt  in  b.  c. 
745,  five  years  before  the  call  of  Isaiah,  under  the 
lead  of  king  Tiglath-pileser,  but  she  did  not  reach 
her  objective  until  b.  c.  672,  seventy  three  years  later. 
Her  slow  progress  was  due  in  large  measure  to  the 
immense  defensive  power  of  the  small  states  of  Pales- 
tine. It  is  true  that  only  one  of  these  kingdoms  had 
any  sort  of  autonomy  when  the  eighth  century  closed ; 
still  the  campaign  against  Assyrian  aggression  is 
a  glorious  page  in  Palestinian  history.  Judah's 
successful  resistance  of  this  world  movement  was 
largely  due  to  the  statesmanlike  leadership  of  her 
great  prophet. 

The  policy  of  Assyria  was  of  the  most  ruthless 
sort.     A  great  brute  of  a  nation,  coarse  and  sen- 


THE  ARENA  OF  WORLD  POLITICS     17 

sual,  believing  only  in  force,  of  slow  moving  mentality 
and  little  creative  imagination,  all  her  methods  of 
warfare  and  notions  of  national  development  were 
dictated  by  the  lowest  propensities  of  human  nature. 
Her  policy  was  to  make  war  with  Teutonic  fright- 
fulness.  We  read  of  chariots  with  scythe  blades  and 
horsemen  swimming  in  blood,  of  mutilations  and  tor- 
tures unbelievable  until  our  day.  Her  aim  was  not 
the  subjugation  of  nations,  but  the  destruction  of 
peoples ;  her  common  method  was  the  deportation 
of  inhabitants  of  conquered  territories  and  the 
thorough  elimination  of  races.  The  small  nations 
against  which  she  first  hurled  her  forces  were  utterly 
incapable  of  successful  resistance,  lacking  in  diplo- 
matic resource  and  military  skill.  In  such  a  crisis 
as  this  Isaiah  was  raised  up  to  preach  the  everlasting 
reality  of  righteousness  and  the  certain  doom  of  all 
peoples  who  based  their  hope  of  success  upon  material 
efficiency  and  godless  ambitions,  and  who  made  their 
plans  without  regard  to  the  rights  of  other  nations 
and  in  utter  contempt  for  moral  reality. 

The  likeness  of  this  to  our  present  world  is  simply 
astounding.  The  more  carefully  one  reads  the  his- 
tory of  Assyria  the  more  profoundly  is  one  convinced 
that  Germany  in  the  great  war  was  simply  Assyria, 
plus  the  resources  of  modern  civilization.  No  nation 
of  past  times,  so  far  as  I  know,  had  so  closely  followed 
the  Assyrian  model  as  this  nation  that  boasted  it- 
self  as    the   most    cultured    in    existence.     Germany 


18  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

has  displayed  the  same  coarse  passions,  the  same 
bovine  stupidity  in  diplomacy,  the  same  faith  in 
brute  strength  and  material  efficiency,  and  has  enter- 
tained the  same  egoistic  aim  at  world  dominion ; 
and  in  order  to  cover  the  crude  materialism  of  her 
purposes  with  a  religious  veneer  changed  the  God  of 
our  Lord  Jesus  into  the  image  of  an  old  brutal 
Assyrian  deity.  Confronting  her  were  precisely  the 
same  moral  and  spiritual  interests  that  faced  As- 
syria ;  what  happened  in  Palestine  in  the  eighth  cen- 
tury B.  c.  has  happened  in  Belgium  in  the  twentieth 
century  a.  d. 

The  modem  world  was  upset  by  the  same  collision 
of  great  ideas  —  this  explosion  of  different  and 
utterly  antagonistic  conceptions  of  life,  social  order, 
morality,  and  religion.  The  great  war  has  been  a 
struggle,  not  between  nations,  but  between  peoples 
and  civilizations.  With  all  her  boasted  culture  the 
civilization  of  Prussianized  Germany  was  based  upon 
matter.  She  used  the  resources  of  mind  and  soul 
in  behalf  of  a  purely  materialistic  conception  of  real- 
ity. The  civilization  of  the  Allied  peoples  is  based 
upon  the  mind :  upon  the  human  spirit ;  and  now  that 
the  war  is  ended,  and  fearful  retribution  has  fallen 
upon  the  aggressor,  it  would  seem  as  if  this  civili- 
zation of  mind  and  spirit  is  to  dominate  the  world. 
Life  would  not  be  worth  living  under  any  other  con- 
ditions ;  and  that  the  civilized  world  was  willing  to 
fight  through   four   years   of  terrible   suffering   for 


THE  ARENA  OF  WORLD  POLITICS      19 

the  establishment  of  its  aims,  is  one  of  the  best  guar- 
antees that  this  ideal  conception  of  human  relation- 
ships, in  the  days  of  readjustment,  shall  not  perish 
from  the  earth. 

Our  times,  too,  have  revealed  many  of  the  charac- 
teristic weaknesses  that  were  common  to  Isaiah's  age. 
We  have  suffered  from  the  same  hesitations,  futili- 
ties and  inaptitudes ;  more  than  all  else  the  great 
war  developed  a  need  for  understanding  the  spiritual 
roots  of  the  moral  passion  which  made  the  Allied 
nations  capable  of  endurance  until  victory  crowned 
their  efforts  ;  for  it  has  been  essentially  a  war  between 
enlightened  self-interest,  relying  chiefly  on  organized 
materialism,  and  moral  principle ;  and  this  gives  to 
the  teaching  of  Isaiah  an  immense  and  significant 
importance  for  the  proper  adjustment  of  our  minds 
to  the  enlarged  conceptions  of  social  duty  and  politi- 
cal responsibility,  to  say  nothing  of  religious  oppor- 
tunity, which  properly  belong  to  the  period  of  recon- 
struction. 

Isaiah's  root  principle,  let  it  never  be  forgotten, 
is  that  righteousness  only  is  permanent.  God  is  real 
because  He  is  righteous,  and  it  was  from  this  simple 
principle  that  Isaiah  deduced  his  doctrine  that  God 
must  control  the  world.  Nations  as  well  as  individ- 
uals are  in  His  hands ;  He  uses  one  nation  to  chastise 
another  nation,  yet  above  all  the  hardships  and 
changes  incident  to  world  disturbance,  it  becomes 
increasingly  clear  that  the  Divine  purposes  are  tern- 


20  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

pered  by  grace  and  loving  kindness.  It  is  quite  clear 
to  my  mind  that  God  has  used  Germany  to  chastise 
the  modern  world  for  the  same  specific  purposes  as 
He  used  the  Assyrian  rod  to  discipline  His  rebellious 
and  indifferent  people  in  the  long,  long  ago.  But 
Germany,  with  all  her  proud  complex  of  arrogance, 
brutality,  and  greed  has  been  in  God's  hand  nothing 
more  than  an  ax  in  the  hands  of  the  woodman,  which 
He  has  discarded,  now  that  His  righteous  purposes 
are  fulfilled. 

Whatever  is  contrary  to  righteousness  in  prin- 
ciple or  practice  cannot  last.  This  tremendous 
truth,  hurled  against  the  coming  centuries  by  Isaiah, 
reafl5rmed  in  an  immortal  expression  by  Habakkuk 
a  century  later,  and  sounding  like  the  voice  of  eter- 
nity over  all  the  noise  and  pain  and  confusion  of  the 
great  war  is  this,  that  a  nation  that  bases  its  hopes 
upon  unrighteous  exploitation  of  other  peoples  in  dis- 
regard of  their  legitimate  rights  is  a  swollen,  putres- 
cent thing;  it  cannot  last  because  it  is  impossible 
for  material  efficiency  and  atheistic  pride  to  live  in 
a  world  of  moral  reality. 

Germany  was  doomed,  not  simply  because  of  what 
the  Allies  were  capable  of  doing  to  her,  but  because 
she  was  in  conflict  with  a  Power  which  history  has 
vindicated  over  and  over  again.  Long  before  her 
final  collapse  and  while  the  moral  passion  of  the  Allied 
peoples  was  growing  more  pure  and  unselfish  through 
the  cleansing  discipline  of  their  suff'erings,  the  world 


THE  ARENA  OF  WORLD  POLITICS     21 

was  filled  with  the  foul  stench  of  her  bursting  carcass. 
Her  doom  was  written  in  flaming  letters  across  the 
sky.  An  invisible  line  had  been  drawn  between  Ger- 
many's ambitions  and  her  goal ;  on  it  had  been 
written :  "  They  shall  not  pass  " ;  and  when  she 
reached  it,  she  collapsed.     She  has  been  at  war  with  '   ^ 

God;   and   like   Assyria,   Babylon,   and   Persia,   the     ^  /f«fo 
star  of  her  military  autocracy  has  set  never  to  rise 
again. 

Whence  came  Isaiah's  vivid  consciousness  of  God's 
realistic  and  dynamic  holiness,  faith  in  which  enabled 
him  in  the  long  struggle  with  Assyrian  ruthlessness, 
to  believe  in  the  ultimate  triumph  of  righteousness? 
It  came,  as  we  shall  see,  from  his  prophetic  call :  the 
consecration  of  the  times. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE    CONSECRATION    OF    THE    TIMES 

Isaiah  vi :  1 :     "In  the  year  that  king  Uzziah  died  1  saw  .  .  . 
the  Lord." 

Isaiah's  influence  over  the  children  of  Israel  during 
the  Assyrian  war  was  due,  as  we  saw  in  the  last  chap- 
ter, to  his  faith  in  God.  He  believed  that  God  was 
the  sovereign  of  this  world  because  God  alone 
was  real.  This  conception  was  based  upon  two 
great  convictions:  righteousness  and  grace.  Isaiah 
founded  his  doctrine  of  providence  upon  the  character 
of  God.  God  v/as  regnant  because  He  was  right- 
eous ;  but  righteousness  was  everywhere  tempered  by 
grace,  by  loving  kindness.  The  power  of  Assyria 
was  limited  by  the  Divine  purpose;  the  misfortunes 
and  sufferings  resulting  from  this  heathenish  out- 
break were  by  grace  to  be  turned  into  disciplinary 
mercies,  fatherly  chastisements.  We  have  now  to 
ask:  What  was  the  source  from  which  Isaiah  de- 
rived this  conception  of  God? 

All  great  convictions  grow  in  a  certain  soil ;  they 
do  not  rise  suddenly  in  the  mind,  but  develop  slowly 
until  they  reach  explosive  force,  whereupon  they  ap- 

22 


THE  CONSECRATION  OF  THE  TIMES      23 

pear  as  a  compelling  intuition  of  truth,  an  imperative 
call  to  service,  an  unescapable  vision  of  duty.  Fol- 
lowing their  ordinary  duties  there  suddenly  emerges 
in  the  consciousness  of  the  prophets  an  irresistible 
belief  that  they  must  do  a  certain  thing;  they  be- 
come convinced  that  God  is  calling  them.  "  I  was 
patiently  following  my  lowly  occupation  as  a  vine- 
dresser and  a  fig  pincher,  when  suddenly,"  says 
Amos,  "  God  called  me  to  go,  prophesy  to  His  people 
Israel."  "  I  was  bowed  down  in  sorrow,  my  home  was 
desolate  and  my  heart  was  broken,"  says  Hosea, 
"  when  suddenly  it  became  clear  to  me  that  this  was 
a  calling  of  God."  And  so  it  was  with  Isaiah. 
"  In  the  year  that  king  Uzziah  died,  I  saw  the  Lord ;  " 
that  was  the  beginning  of  his  conscious  authority 
as  a  prophet ;  and  it  was  this  imperative  sense  of  a 
Divine  calling  that  developed  in  his  mind  the  great 
convictions  about  God. 

Yet  there  is  nothing  irrational  about  such  an  ex- 
perience. It  can  be  explained  in  part  at  least,  be- 
cause it  has  a  definite  relation  to  past  experience. 
In  fact  one  is  impressed  at  all  points  with  the  sanity 
of  the  prophets.  They  know  definitely  that  God 
is  calling  them,  yet  they  realize  that  their  call  is 
intimately  related  to  their  past  experience;  and  this 
is  due  to  the  reaction  of  outward  events  upon  states 
of  mind.  God  uses  the  events  of  a  man's  life  to 
develop  a  consciousness  of  mission ;  that  is  why  Isaiah 
could    associate   his    spiritual   vision   with    a    great 


M  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

secular  event :  "  In  the  year  that  king  Uzziah  died, 
I  saw  the  Lord." 

Political  and  social  changes  often  make  men  con- 
scious of  spiritual  needs.  This  striking  reaction  of 
outward  events  upon  states  of  soul  may  be  illus- 
trated over  and  over  again.  Many  a  spiritual  Jew 
could  say :  "  In  the  year  that  Antiochus  Epiphanes 
sacked  Jerusalem,  I  saw  the  Lord " ;  as  many  a 
spiritual  man  of  our  time  can  say :  "  In  the  year 
that  Germany  invaded  Belgium,  I  saw  the  Lord." 
The  reason  in  each  case  is  plain.  Bitter  disillusion- 
ment is  often  the  moment  of  superior  spiritual  vision. 
Change  teaches  the  spiritual  man  to  fear  God.  When 
we  become  aware  of  the  instability  of  political  institu- 
tions we  are  apt  to  realize  our  spiritual  necessities; 
our  souls  are  set  on  fresh  quests  for  peace ;  and  if  we 
be  righteously  inclined  we  come  sooner  or  later  to 
have  a  more  satisfactory  knowledge  of  God. 

With  Isaiah  the  awakening  to  a  consciousness  of 
a  prophetic  mission  coincided  with  a  bitter  disillu- 
sionment. He  was  twenty  five  years  of  age,  and 
doubtless  up  to  that  time  had  been  a  nation-centered 
man ;  religious,  of  course,  but  patriotic  too ;  and 
sharing  in  the  illusions  of  his  age.  Although  later 
he  was  to  learn  the  bitter  but  salutary  truth  that 
his  nation  was  degraded  and  godless,  yet  now  to  his 
young  and  unstained  nature  there  was  something 
pure,  lofty,  and  ideal  about  this  people.  He  greatly 
admired  the  king,  who  for  fifty  years  had  reigned 


THE  CONSECRATION  OF  THE  TIMES     25 

over  Judah,  as  great  a  man  as  Solomon,  possessing 
many  traits  of  character  likely  to  attract  the  ad- 
miration of  a  youth.  It  was  a  time  of  prosperity 
and  progress ;  when  suddenly  the  great  king  died,  a 
leper,  rejected  of  God.  It  must  have  been  a  terrible 
moment  to  the  young  man;  it  was  one  of  those  mo- 
ments common  to  inexperienced  youth  when  utter 
desolation  overtakes  the  soul.  His  ideal  world  had 
suddenly  dissolved  leaving  him  alone  and  friendless 
in  the  garish  light  of  day. 

Even  then,  both  Israel  and  Judah  were  feeling  the 
influence  of  the  terrible  Assyrian  advance,  which  had 
begun  five  years  before.  Israel's  confidence  in  meet- 
ing her  enemies  was  largely  based  on  the  power  and 
prestige  of  great  kings ;  but  when  Uzziah  died,  the 
nation  drifted  towards  anarchy;  its  guidance  was 
committed  to  weak  and  sinful  men.  The  young  man 
felt  that  he  was  living  in  a  very  unstable  world.  In 
a  very  real  sense,  the  death  of  Uzziah  marked  the 
end  of  Isaiah's  youth;  it  was  a  time  when  he  felt 
that  he  must  leave  his  ease  to  assume  his  responsi- 
bilities, but  how.P  True  such  an  experience  made 
him  more  mature,  but  less  confident  all  the  same  of 
the  future  and  infinitely  less  sure  of  himself  and  of 
his  time ;  but  in  the  hour  of  prostration  the  devotional 
habits  of  his  life  came  to  his  aid,  and  led  him  to  the 
house  of  God.  He  dare  not  try  to  think  it  out  alone ; 
it  was  too  painful  to  him ;  he  would  go  into  the  sanc- 
tuary and  seek  the  consolation  of  worship.     When 


26  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

he  came  within  the  Temple  courts,  sensitive,  recep- 
tive, disillusioned,  with  every  avenue  to  his  soul  open 
to  spiritual  impressions  —  when  he  came  into  the 
sanctuary  he  saw  —  God.  Seeing  here  means  some- 
thing more  than  sense  perception;  what  it  means 
is  that  this  was  the  moment,  a  definite  period  in  his 
conscious  life,  when  he  transferred  his  faith  from  the 
nation  to  God  alone.  He  learned  for  the  first  time 
a  lesson  he  never  forgot  —  the  essential  difference 
between  a  nation  and  a  divine  kingdom,  between  a 
patriotic  passion  and  a  spiritual  relationship.  It 
was  the  moment  when  his  life  became  God-centered; 
and  high  above  nations,  peoples,  and  political  move- 
ments he  saw  the  greatness  and  the  glory  and  the  onli- 
ness  of  God.  Life,  which  in  the  hour  of  disenchant- 
ment had  become  a  terrible  experience,  now  takes  on 
a  deep  and  glorious  solemnity.  Breaking  out  on  all 
sides  of  the  Temple,  cutting  into  shreds  the  ritual 
screen  which  had  hitherto  hidden  the  Divine  glory 
from  his  soul,  Isaiah  saw  God  "  sitting  upon  a  throne, 
high  and  lifted  up."  Here  and  not  in  Judah,  nor 
yet  in  Assyria,  nor  yet  anywhere  on  homely  earth, 
but  amid  the  ineffable  glories  of  the  eternal  world 
was  the  real  sovereignty  controlling  destiny.  Thus 
to  the  receptive  soul  come  moments  of  realization; 
material  screens  become  transparent  and  man  sees 
spirit  touching  spirit  and  knows  the  meaning  of 
reality. 

This  conception  lies  at  the  basis  of  Isaiah's  preach- 


THE  CONSECRATION  OF  THE  TIMES     27 

ing;  to  miss  it  is  to  miss  the  secret  of  his  constancy 
and  of  his  strength ;  above  all,  it  is  to  miss  the  secret 
of  his  great  peace.  I  think  he  had  this  sense  of 
divine  reality  more  deeply  impressed  upon  him  than 
any  other  prophet.  Jeremiah  alone  of  others  is 
fit  to  stand  beside  Isaiah.  His  task  was  in  many  re- 
spects far  more  difficult  and  discouraging ;  still  he  had 
the  same  advantage  of  knowing  the  greatness  of  God ; 
yet  we  remember  how  he  complained,  hesitated,  and 
sometimes  doubted.  But  Isaiah  never  faltered;  he 
never  doubted  or  complained  because  he  was  consist- 
ently loyal  to  the  pole-star  of  his  soul.  His  immense 
superiority  appears  best  on  the  dark  background  of 
discouragement  and  defeat  which  overtook  his  nation. 
He  stood  among  them  in  the  hour  of  disaster  the 
only  great  believer  in  God ;  facing  the  terrors  of  the 
Assyrian  advance  with  a  calm  and  confident  spirit 
because  he  knew  experimentally  that  God  alone  was 
real.     He  had  seen  the  Lord. 

This  is  the  essence  of  religious  faith.  It  is  not  to 
believe  in  certain  theories  of  religion,  or  to  possess 
certain  habits  and  relationships ;  but  essentially  to 
believe  God  and  to  believe  in  God,  that  is  to  trust 
Him  because  you  know  that  He  alone  is  real  and  only 
the  real  is  permanent.  Once  to  believe  this  is  to  gain 
that  foothold  beyond  time,  which  Carlyle  says,  gives 
a  man  a  foothold  within  time.  Isaiah  could  proclaim 
during  the  forty  years  of  trial  and  disaster  which 
tormented  even  the  most  spiritual  of  his  generation: 


28  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

in  the  year  of  bitter  disillusionment  when  men's 
hearts  were  failing  and  old  ideals  were  shattered; 
when  the  fair  fabric  of  our  civilization  was  rent 
asunder  by  the  ruthless  teeth  of  the  Assyrian  boar; 
when  God's  people  were  sunk  in  lethargy  and  so  be- 
fogged with  delusions  that  they  had  no  notion  where 
they  were  drifting,  in  that  terrible  unforgetable 
year  "  in  the  year  that  king  Uzziah  died,  I  saw  the 
Lord,  sitting  upon  a  throne."  The  throne  was  the 
essence  of  reality. 

It  was  from  this  tremendous  intuition  of  the  essen- 
tial nature  of  God  that  Isaiah  drew  his  great  con- 
victions that  God  was  both  righteous  and  gracious. 
He  heard  the  heavenly  singers,  singing  of  the  holi- 
ness of  God.  It  was  no  mere  static,  inactive  holiness, 
but  something  intensely  dynamic,  potent  and  terribly 
close  to  man's  life.  The  whole  earth  was  full  of 
God's  glory,  and  glory  was  nothing  else  but  mani- 
fested holiness.  Here  we  come  upon  the  most  radical 
and  original  notion  of  the  prophet  that  holiness  is 
an  atmosphere  of  fire.  It  burned  about  the  uni- 
verse like  a  great  devouring  flame,  it  consumed  every- 
thing that  was  unlike  itself,  and  refined  and  purified 
everything  that  resembled  it ;  therefore  holiness  was 
the  essence  of  reality.  The  righteous  was  the  real, 
because  it  alone  was  fitted  to  live  in  the  fire.  What 
was  Assyria  then,  with  all  her  proud  claims,  but 
just  God's  ax,  God's  thing,  to  be  discarded  when  the 
Divine  purposes  were  fulfilled.'^     Assyria  was  doomed 


THE  CONSECRATION  OF  THE  TIMES      29 

because  she  could  not  live  in  the  fire;  but  the  right- 
eous man,  the  man  of  faithfulness  should  survive,  be- 
cause he  alone  was  fitted  to  live  in  the  atmosphere 
of  reality. 

Is  it  any  wonder,  then,  that  the  young  man  was 
overcome  by  this  terrible,  glorious  truth,  for  he  saw 
rising  between  him  and  God  a  great  smoke  screen. 
This  smoke  was  occasioned  by  the  contact  of  reality 
with  unreality,  of  fire  with  that  which  could  be  con- 
sumed. The  work  of  destruction  was  already  be- 
ginning. Clouds  and  darkness  were  rising  to  hide 
the  glorious  throne  from  the  eyes  of  the  worshipper. 
The  vision  of  God's  reality  was  also  the  discovery  of 
his  unfitness ;  need  we  wonder  then  at  his  words : 
"  Woe  is  me !  for  I  am  undone ;  because  I  am  a  man 
of  unclean  lips,  and  I  dwell  in  the  midst  of  a  people 
of  unclean  lips,  for  mine  eyes  have  seen  the  King,  the 
Lord  of  hosts." 

This  dark  night  of  the  soul  overtakes  a  truly  peni- 
tent man ;  it  is  the  hour  of  austerity  and  searching 
self-examination  ;  it  is  the  moment  when  the  awakened 
soul  exchanges  the  episodic  terror  of  unknown  forces 
for  the  constant  fear  of  a  God  who  is  being  progress- 
ively known.  Such  an  experience  is  always  painful, 
but  unless  we  pass  through  it  we  can  never  understand 
the  glory  of  God's  holiness,  nor  the  greater  glory  of 
His  mercy. 

Disillusion  was  followed  by  self-knowledge.  Thus 
began  the  practical  realism  that  made  Isaiah  a  man 


30  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

tremendously  in  love  with  facts ;  a  root-and-branch 
sort  of  a  man  whose  soul  had  been  searched  by  this 
terrible,  this  remorseless  reality.  He  felt  himself  un- 
done, paralyzed,  and  helpless.  Most  of  all  his  very 
lips  were  unclean.  Here  had  this  soul-awakening 
truth  come  to  him ;  it  waited  to  be  proclaimed  from 
the  house  tops,  yet  he  dare  not  declare  it  because 
his  lips  were  soiled.  He  had  a  passion  to  worship 
and  to  adore,  he  longed  to  join  in  the  hymn  of  praise, 
yet  between  him  and  God  was  this  terrible  smoke 
screen,  and  on  his  lips  such  defilement  as  to  make 
him  dumb  forever.  He  had  a  truth  for  which  the 
world  was  waiting,  but  its  very  possession  made  him 
an  alien,  a  wanderer  among  men.  There  was  nothing 
in  environment  to  aid  him  for  he  dwelt  in  the  midst 
of   a    people   of   unclean   lips. 

He  had  knowledge  of  God  enough  to  kill  the  soul 
with  too  much  light,  but  he  dare  not  speak  of  it; 
and  then  when  he  felt  himself  lost  amid  clouds  and 
darkness  there  came  out  of  the  mist  a  messenger 
with  a  living  coal  and  touched  his  lips  and  made 
them  clean.  It  was  the  keen  awakening  of  this  sen- 
sitive soul  to  that  other  truth  about  God  which 
was  the  foundation  of  his  faith,  namely,  that  God 
is  merciful  and  full  of  loving  kindness.  No  prophet 
has  equaled  Isaiah's  insight  into  the  Divine  mind, 
for  here  in  this  symbolism  of  the  altar  is  a  clear 
intimation  of  the  cross  and  the  atoning  mercy  of 
Jesus.     I  think  we  see  this   clearly,  but  do   we  as 


THE  CONSECRATION  OF  THE  TIMES      31 

clearly  apprehend  the  other  implication,  that  of  the 
ordeal  by  fire?  Isaiah  believed  that  God  was  real 
because  He  was  holy ;  but  holiness  was  an  unescap- 
able  atmosphere  of  fire,  burning  around  men,  and 
nations,  and  things.  It  made  men  aware  of  their 
unrealit}^,  of  their  utter  helplessness  before  God, 
their  unfitness  to  live  in  the  fire.  How  then  could 
man  dwell  in  the  midst  of  this  devouring  flame.'* 
The  answer  is  here.  The  fiery  essence  may, 
through  the  mercy  of  God,  as  here,  become  a 
cleansing  medium ;  but  do  we  realize  that  such 
cleansing  by  fire  is  always  painful.?  God's  mercy 
is  mediated  by  the  same  agent  that  destroys  the 
wicked.  The  righteous  fire  would  eventually  destroy 
Assyria,  but  the  long,  painful  discipline  resulting 
from  the  war  would  become  to  the  righteous,  a 
cleansing  fire  of  mercy ;  but  do  we  yet  see  that 
the  ways  of  mercy  may  be  as  painful  in  their  opera- 
tion as  are  the  ways  of  judgment.'* 

The  realization  of  this  that  the  pains  and  disci- 
plines of  the  time  were  intelligible  through  the  dis- 
covery of  active  holiness  is  the  basis  of  Isaiah's 
unfaltering  faith  that  God  is  working  for  Israel  a 
"  far  more  exceeding  and  eternal  weight  of  glory." 
It  took  Israel  a  long  time  to  see  this ;  I  wonder  if 
we  see  it  yet.^* 

Here  then  is  the  source  of  Isaiah's  great  con- 
victions. When  holiness  and  sin  touch  each  other 
there  is   first,  mist,   the   destruction   of   that   which 


32  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

is  unholy;  then,  mercy,  with  its  painful  ordeal  by 
fire ;  and  then,  this  —  the  opening  of  the  ears  and  the 
awakening  to  a  consciousness  of  mission.  We  talk 
a  great  deal  of  understanding  God,  of  spiritual  dis- 
cernment, but  the  only  way  to  it  is  through  the 
cleansing  of  the  soul.  When  Isaiah's  lips  were 
cleansed,  he  got  his  ears  open  and  heard  the  common 
but  fundamental  demand  for  service.  The  call  to 
service  is  the  authentication  of  the  cleansing  process, 
that  without  which  the  process  is  an  illusion.  This 
is  the  certain  test  of  religious  reality ;  not  that 
Divine  mercy  relieves  man  from  responsibility,  but 
definitely  transfers  his  interest  from  himself  and  the 
world  about  him  to  God,  and  shuts  him  up  to  a  clear- 
cut  dedication  of  life  to  the  Divine  will ;  hence  we 
need  not  be  surprised  to  hear  the  prophet's  response : 
"  Here  am  I,  send  me." 

There  is  no  suggestion  here  of  argument,  such  as 
took  place  between  God  and  Jeremiah;  no  questions 
are  asked  about  the  nature  of  the  service  required. 
It  is  utter  self-devotement,  and  I  think  that  is  the 
most  active  expression  of  the  human  spirit.  When 
a  sense  of  such  a  mission  comes  to  him  a  man  is 
reduced  to  pure  action.  Something  he  dare  not 
resist  possesses  the  soul,  and  when  he  hears  the  im- 
perative voice  calling,  he  is  obliged  to  answer: 
"  Here  am  I,  send  me." 

If  we  may  know  the  exact  moment  when  a  man 
is  fully  grown,  it  is  in  such  an  experience.     That 


THE  CONSECRATION  OF  THE  TIMES      33 

is  the  meaning  of  a  call;  the  assumption  of  a  life 
task.  When  hardships  are  discounted  and  fears  and 
hesitations  are  put  behind  him,  and  the  man  comes 
forth  and  gives  himself  —  that  is  the  moment  when 
he  is  wholly  God's.  And  from  this  moment  Isaiah 
was  definitely  on  the  Lord's  side.  He  never,  as  was 
the  habit  of  some  prophets,  questioned  his  calling, 
neither  did  he  ever  find  fault  with  the  Divine 
program;  his  surrender  was  complete,  final  and 
absolute. 

We  have  now  to  consider  the  nature  of  his  com- 
mission. Indeed  it  was  a  disappointing  task,  and 
one  that  would  have  broken  the  spirit  of  a  weaker 
man.  He  is  to  deliver  a  message  that  will  harden 
the  people.  Instead  of  finding  them  ready  for  it, 
he  must  be  prepared  to  see  them  disbelieve  it,  reject 
it  contemptuously  and  under  his  ministry  grow  less 
instead  of  more  receptive.  Their  eyes  it  will  gum 
up,  and  their  ears  it  will  stop,  and  their  hearts  it 
will  becloud.  The  first  discovery  of  a  true  prophet 
is  the  obstinacy  of  the  people.  The  first  illusion 
he  loses  is  that  because  a  thing  is  true,  the  people 
will  believe  it.  Paul  thought  so,  on  his  return 
to  Jerusalem  after  his  conversion ;  the  young 
minister  believes  it  about  his  first  congregation ; 
every  great  servant  of  society  has  begun  his  career 
with  this  illusion,  and  lost  it  just  as  Isaiah  did. 
Truth  in  some  quarters  has  no  market  value ;  the 
voice  of  wisdom  cries  unheeded  on  the  corners  of  the 


34  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

street.  No  wonder  the  young  man  exclaimed  when 
he  realized  the  nature  of  his  mission :  "  0  Lord, 
how  long?  "  and  was  told  a  more  distressing  thing: 
until  the  nation  is  worn  out  by  wars  and  disasters, 
and  nothing  is  left  but  a  remnant,  a  mere  stump 
of  the  parent  tree.  This  was  a  discouraging  pros- 
pect, but  it  has  ever  been  the  role  of  prophets  to 
face  this  very  thing.  People  are  often  obstinate, 
vain,  and  foolish  in  the  presence  of  their  real  leaders ; 
they  love  delusions,  and  like  Israel,  prefer  the  hot 
wadies  of  Palestine  to  the  cool  snows  of  Lebanon 
that  never  fail.  Above  all  they  fear  the  austerity 
of  truth  and  love  to  take  refuge  in  a  world  of  make- 
believe.  Isaiah's  people  would  not  think;  more 
stupid  than  the  ox  and  the  ass,  they  had  no  sense 
whatever  of  gratitude  for  the  Divine  mercies. 
Even  their  religion  was  offensive  to  God  —  this 
temple  treading,  senseless  shouting,  and  vain  postur- 
ing in  the  house  of  worship  —  making  the  fact  that 
they  were  the  chosen  people  a  reason  for  shutting 
their  eyes  to  what  might  happen  to  them  in  the 
Assyrian  war.  Sterner  measures  were  needed. 
They  must  be  forced  to  live  in  a  harder,  more  uncom- 
fortable world ;  they  must  be  driven  out  of  their  nests 
into  the  arena ;  above  all  they  must  be  made  to  feel 
the  heat  of  the  tremendous  fire  that  was  even  then 
burning  about  them. 

Isaiah  must  prepare  himself   for  misunderstand- 
ing; he  must  face  the  contempt  of  the  crowd,  stand 


THE  CONSECRATION  OF  THE  TIMES      35 

in  jeopardy  of  his  life,  and  for  a  season  be  content 
to  fail.  He  must  resolve  to  put  his  young  feet  on 
the  steep  path  of  holy  devotion  that  leads  to  the 
heights ;  he  must  accept  the  role  of  loneliness  and 
glory ;  stand  there  on  the  frontiers  of  eternity  and 
see  things  clearly  which  the  people  saw  not  at  all, 
until  that  holy  seed,  for  which  and  in  whose  interests 
God  was  then  sifting  the  wheat  from  the  chaff,  had 
been  brought  to  a  state  of  spiritual  soundness  and 
sturdy  faith. 

There  is  much  here  of  timely  importance  for  our 
age.  The  chief  defect  of  our  religious  life  —  a 
characteristic  of  the  activities  of  the  modern  church 
—  has  been  ignorance  of  God.  We  have  almost  lost 
the  sense  of  God's  glorious  austere  holiness ;  and  so 
abused  the  idea  of  love  that  we  have  behaved  as  if 
God  were  indifferent  to  moral  distinctions.  Our 
worship  has  been  vitiated  by  unreality,  irreverence 
and  unconscious  hypocrisy;  and  in  rare  moments  of 
spiritual  sensibility  we  have  endeavored  to  escape 
the  influence  of  Divine  holiness  by  riotous  indulgence 
in  revivalism  or  ritual  performances  which  put  the 
conscience  to  sleep  with  sacramentarian  anodynes. 
Like  the  people  of  Isaiah's  time,  we  did  not  care  to 
think  much  about  religion,  preferring  impressionis- 
tic titillations  of  the  emotions  to  the  spiritually 
transforming  power  of  deep  and  sustained  reflection. 

Making  little  of  the  holiness  of  God  it  is  not  sur- 
prising that  we  have   persistently   undervalued   the 


36  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

saving  mercy  of  Jesus  Christ.  It  is  useless  to 
preach  a  gospel  of  salvation  to  a  people  who  do  not 
believe  they  need  it ;  and  nothing  has  ever  made  men 
conscious  of  this  need  like  a  fresh  sense  of  Divine 
holiness.  Because  our  knowledge  of  holiness  has 
been  small,  our  estimate  of  Christ  has  been  defec- 
tive. We  have  permitted  Him  to  reign  over  a  rather 
remote  and  ineffective  world  we  call  the  future;  but 
we  have  not  allowed  Him  to  govern  or  be  sovereign 
in  the  work-a-day  world  of  conduct,  or  in  the  con- 
trol of  our  deeper  allegiances.  On  this  account  all 
sense  of  austerity  has  gone  out  of  modern  life.  We 
have  believed  in  a  comfortable  world  because  we 
liked  to  live  at  ease  in  Zion.  We  have  grown  fat 
and  sleek  in  body,  but  lean  of  soul ;  and  put  outside 
activities  and  noisy  propaganda  in  place  of  the  inner 
sanctities  of  life. 

All  this  have  we  done,  and  been  all  the  while  in- 
different to  God's  gentler  measures.  Was  ever  a 
passage  more  descriptive  of  the  delusions  of  a 
democracy  infatuated  with  unregulated  idealisms, 
intoxicated  by  its  superficial  successes,  and  blind  to 
the  deeper  implications  of  modern  political  history, 
than  this  of  Isaiah  of  a  people  whose  eyes  are 
gummed  up,  and  whose  ears  are  stopped,  and  whose 
understandings  are  befogged  by  truth  that  was 
meant  to  save  them?  There  seems  to  be  in  this 
country  a  well-defined  notion  that  God  exists  solely 
for  our  own  purposes  and  ends.     Have  we  not  been 


THE  CONSECRATION  OF  THE  TIMES      37 

told  in  recent  days  by  an  adventurous  young  doctor 
of  philosophy  that  if  God  wishes  to  retain  the 
allegiance  of  humanity,  He  must  adapt  His  ways 
to  the  requirements  of  modern  democracy? 

It  has  been  a  good  world  for  predatory  ani- 
mals, but  no  fit  place  for  spirits  who  are  to  live 
forever.  And  then  came  the  German  ax  crashing 
down  through  our  flimsy  shelters,  and  our  ease  and 
security  left  us.  The  cold  clean  winds  are  blowing 
the  sickly  effluvia  of  our  sensuous  existence  away 
from  the  soul.  The  old  comfort-loving  world  has 
gone  —  for  this  generation  —  gone  forever,  and  we 
find  ourselves  in  a  more  stimulating  atmosphere. 
Shall  we  imagine  that  God  is  going  to  withdraw  this 
purging  discipline  from  us  until  we  are  clean.'* 
Think  you  He  cares  more  for  our  comfort  than  for 
our  spiritual  satisfaction?  Dare  we  go  back  to  our 
buying  and  selling,  our  eating  and  drinking  and  mis- 
doing, when  Europe  has  been  bled  white  in  holy 
strife?  I  tell  you.  No!  If  you  ask  the  prophet's 
question:  "O  Lord,  how  long?"  the  answer  is 
plainly:  until  the  holy  seed  is  purged,  cleansed,  and 
fitted  for  its  spiritual  mission.  Isaiah  calls  the 
holy  seed  a  remnant,  but  he  never  uses  this  word 
in  a  quantitative  sense,  as  if  the  results  of  the  sifting 
process  were  small.  In  fact  it  is  an  idea  of  large 
qualitative  meaning,  and  is  naturally  developed  in 
the  book  of  Revelation  into  a  great  multitude  whom 
no  man  can  number.     When  we  think  of  the  variety 


38  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

of  races  and  peoples  who  took  part  in  the  great  war ; 
when  we  consider  the  multitudes  who  are  to-day  ex- 
perimenting with  government  in  search  of  a  more 
legitimate  self-expression  we  are  really  looking  upon 
an  enlarged  phase  of  God's  educational  work. 

The  world  has  not  been  inclined  to  consider  this 
aspect  of  its  history,  infatuated  as  it  was  with 
private  aims  or  restricted  national  ambitions,  and 
greatly  taken  up  with  notions  of  evolutionary 
progress ;  on  which  account  it  has  been  a  lonely  place 
for  the  prophetic  soul.  Men  were  not  willing  to 
heed  gentler  measures  of  correction;  sterner  trials 
were  required,  and  now  they  have  come  upon  us. 
In  the  tremendous  changes  incident  to  the  world 
convulsion  we  find  ourselves  without  the  old  shelters 
and  sensible  of  the  inaptitude  of  ancient  traditions 
and  established  customs ;  but  thank  God  with  all 
this,  we  are  alive. 

The  German  ax  —  God's  instrument  —  has  done 
its  work.  Our  flimsy  shelters  are  destroyed,  and  we 
have  been  surprised  to  learn  that  we  are  capable 
of  a  hardier,  sterner  life  in  the  wide  open  world  of 
thought  and  experience.  At  great  cost  have  we 
been  permitted  to  come  to  ourselves,  to  discover  our 
inner  fineness ;  the  war  has  given  us  an  opportunity 
of  turning  our  inchoate  idealism  into  sober  fact,  and 
to  holy  souls  who  have  staked  their  all  upon  a 
spiritual  view  of  life,  and  who  are  willing  to  follow 
the  Captain  of  Salvation  even  into  the  furnace  of 


THE  CONSECRATION  OF  THE  TIMES      39 

dynamic  righteousness,  the  times  are  bringing  con- 
secration robes ;  they  stand  before  us  as  awakening 
ministers  of  grace,  calling  for  sacrifice,  and  self- 
devotement,  but  bidding  us  assume  a  task  in  the  re- 
construction of  the  Avorld  which  can  have  but  one 
ending,  namely  the  permanent  satisfaction  of  the 
soul. 

Through  the  sacrifices  of  the  war,  and  in  the 
mighty  problems  incident  to  the  period  of  readjust- 
ment God  once  more  is  invading  man's  life  in  search 
of  a  larger  expression  of  His  will.  To  those  who 
are  sensible  of  this  great  opportunity  there  can  be 
but  one  attitude,  that  of  intelligent  and  resolute 
cooperation.  Burn  on,  O  Divine  fire,  until  all  dross 
is  purged  away!  Blow,  ye  icy  winds  from  the  cool 
snows  of  Lebanon,  until  all  poisonous  atmospheres 
are  cleansed  from  the  soul!  Rise,  O  terrible  smoke, 
until  the  messenger  of  mercy  comes  through  thee! 
Make  clean  our  lips  and  open  our  hearts  that  we 
may  have  a  sense  of  mission !  Call,  us,  O  Lord,  with 
an  unescapable  imperative  until  we  range  ourselves 
with  those  who  are  forever  committed  to  a  campaign 
of  righteousness ;  and  make  us  comrades  with  those, 
who  like  Isaiah  have  exchanged  the  fear  of  man  for 
the  fear  of  God,  and  have  found  in  the  vision  of 
holiness  a  pathway  to  the  eternal  peace ! 


CHAPTER  III 

THE    STALENESS    OF    THE    YEARS 

Isaiah  v:l;     "Now  will  I  sing  to  my  well  beloved  a  song  of 
my  beloved  touching  his  vineyard." 

The  measure  of  a  people's  receptivity  is  ability  to 
understand  direct  speech.  If  one  has  to  resort  to 
indirect  methods,  it  indicates  either  a  low  grade  of 
intelligence,  or  a  mentality  calloused  by  moral  ec- 
centricity. There  was  no  lack  of  intelligence  in 
Judah  during  Isaiah's  time,  but  all  the  same  the 
people  were  quite  incapable  of  understanding  direct 
speech  simply  because  they  did  not  like  to  think. 
It  was  the  lament  of  all  the  prophets  of  those  times 
that  God's  people  were  perishing  for  lack  of  knowl- 
edge, not  because  the  supply  of  truth  was  limited, 
but  on  account  of  the  low  receptivity  of  the  nation. 
God  plainly  told  Isaiah  that  his  preaching  would 
harden  the  people ;  their  eyes  it  would  gum  up,  their 
ears  it  would  stop,  and  their  understandings  it  would 
becloud.  This  was  not  a  judicial  blindness  for  God 
meant  the  prophet's  preaching  for  the  people's  good ; 
the  hardening  was  the  direct  result  of  their  mental 
condition.     Truth   is    after    all   more    deadly    than 

40 


THE  STALENESS  OF  THE  YEARS   41 

falsehood,  for  if  you  determine  not  to  receive  it, 
especially  when  you  suspect  that  it  is  truth,  it  will 
harden  the  mind  more  quickly  than  falsehood.  God 
has  no  respect  for  the  swinish  mind,  and  when  such 
a  condition  results,  the  only  thing  left  is  to  look 
to  the  painful  logic  of  facts  to  awaken  the  people. 

This  was  Isaiah's  task,  as  indeed  it  was  that  of 
his  contemporaries.  He  was  obliged  to  teach  for 
years,  often  by  the  most  indirect  methods,  since  it 
was  useless  to  make  a  frontal  attack  on  the  people's 
ignorance,  without  seeing  any  result  save  the  hard- 
ening of  the  mind,  and  the  shutting  of  the  ej^es  to 
facts,  so  plain  they  seem  to  us  that  a  child  could 
understand  them. 

Tv\'o  facts  of  portentous  significance  distinguish 
this  period:  one  the  presence  of  such  prophets 
among  the  people,  the  other  the  Assyrian  invasion 
of  Palestine.  Amos  and  Hosea  in  the  north,  Isaiah 
and  Micah  in  the  south,  agreed  in  their  teaching 
and  met  with  the  same  rejection.  Amos  argued: 
"  Shall  two  walk  together,  except  they  have 
agreed?  Will  a  lion  roar  in  the  forest,  when  he 
hath  no  prey.'*  .  .  .  Surely  the  Lord  God  will  do 
nothing,  but  He  revealeth  His  secret  unto  His  serv- 
ants the  prophets.  The  lion  hath  roared,  who  will 
not  fear?  the  Lord  God  hath  spoken,  who  can  but 
prophesy?  "  The  presence  of  men  with  such  a 
message  was  significant  of  great  events  impending; 
yet  these  people  remained  defiant,  contemptuous,  and 


42  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

indifferent  to  every  effort  made  to  enlighten  them. 
The  other  fact,  equally  significant,  was  the  presence 
of  the  Assyrian  in  Palestine.  Long  before  the  ter- 
rible armies  of  that  ruthless  foe  had  entered  the 
promised  land,  these  prophets  saw  what  it  would 
mean  to  the  country,  and  they  labored  in  and  out 
of  season  to  rouse  the  people.  Any  one  can  see  the 
danger  now,  but  they  did  not  see  it  then  because  of 
the  peculiar  state  of  their  minds.  And  if  they  ap- 
pear to  us  singularly  obtuse,  what  shall  we  say  of 
Britain  and  America  which  persistently  failed  to  see 
anything  dangerous  in  the  military  preparations  of 
Germany?  We  too  had  our  prophets,  still  it  is  clear 
that  Germany  took  the  world  by  surprise,  and  for 
precisely  the  same  reason  that  made  both  Israel  and 
Judah  blind  to  the  menace  of  Assyria. 

We  have  then  to  inquire  into  the  pre-war  stage 
of  Judean  life;  we  must  seek  an  explanation  of  this 
culpable  blindness  in  a  peculiar  state  of  mind. 
More  than  a  century  after  Isaiah's  time,  Habakkuk 
used  a  phrase  that  accurately  describes  it.  He 
called  it  the  staleness  of  the  years;  that  is,  a  state 
of  mind  originating  in  a  condition  of  life  that  had 
continued  for  such  an  indefinite  time  as  to  become 
familiar,  customary,  and  routine;  wherein  all  vital 
forces  had  gone  out  of  the  thinking  of  the  age,  where 
its  habits  of  life  and  manner  of  thought  were  ac- 
cepted as  matters  of  course,  in  which  its  status  in 
the  world  was  taken  for  granted.     The  result  of  such 


THE  STALENESS  OF  THE  YEARS   43 

a  condition  is  that  a  kind  of  staleness  comes  over  the 
human  spirit,  a  loss  of  initiative,  an  inability  to 
criticize  one's  self;  especially  the  unwillingness  to 
change  one's  habits  of  living.  This  does  not  imply 
the  absence  of  vitality  in  a  nation,  but  only  that 
the  currents  of  life  run  in  clear-cut,  well  defined 
channels,  and  by  refusing  to  seek  new  outlets,  become 
sluggish  and  dull  of  apprehension. 

The  practical  effect  of  such  a  state  of  mind  is  to 
close  it  to  all  new  impressions.  It  becomes  parochial 
and  provincial,  the  slave  of  tradition.  Its  creed  is : 
"  As  it  was  in  the  beginning,  is  now,  and  ever  shall 
be,  world  without  end."  If  this  state  of  mind  was 
characteristic  of  the  people  of  Judah  before  the 
Assyrian  invasion,  it  was  also  common  to  the  peoples 
of  Great  Britain  and  America  before  the  German 
outbreak.  A  great,  world-devastating  war,  men 
said,  w^as  impossible  in  the  enlightened  twentieth 
century;  this  was  asserted,  not  on  the  ground  of 
careful  investigation,  but  in  obedience  to  certain 
customary  ways  of  thinking  and  feeling  about  our- 
selves. The  stale  mentality  of  our  time  refused  to 
entertain  any  conception  that  was  contrary  to 
custom,  or  disturbed  our  comfortable  view  of  the 
world.  We  measured  ourselves  by  ourselves,  and 
compared  ourselves  with  ourselves,  and  were  simply 
indifferent  to  any  new  truth  that  might  destroy  our 
placid,  Boeotian  contentment.  The  attitude  of 
these  countries  towards  the  few  enlightened  men  who 


44  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

tried  to  arouse  them  to  the  danger,  is  proof  of  this. 
Men  like  Lord  Roberts  preached  preparedness  in 
Great  Britain  for  years ;  the  great  giant  was  slightly 
disturbed,  enough  perhaps,  to  be  thoroughly  angry 
with  her  faithful  servant,  and  then  complacently 
turned  over  and  went  to  sleep  again,  until  she  was 
thoroughly  aroused  by  the  German  guns  on  the 
Belgian  frontier.  Zephaniah  describes  this  condi- 
tion of  mind  in  a  trenchant  criticism  of  his  time: 
God  "  will  search  Jerusalem  with  candles,  and  punish 
the  men  that  are  settled  on  their  lees ;  that  say  in 
their  heart,  '  The  Lord  will  not  do  good,  neither  will 
He  do  evil.'  " 

This  disease  was  epidemic  in  Isaiah's  time.  Ma- 
terial for  its  proof  is  abundant:  I  can  only  here 
select  certain  characteristic  features  of  the  life  of  the 
age  to  show  what  I  mean,  and  in  doing  so,  must 
treat  the  problem  and  the  prophets  of  Israel  and 
Judah  together,  for  what  Isaiah  found  in  Judah 
was  common  in  Israel  also.  The  great  souls,  stand- 
ing on  the  frontiers  of  eternity,  seeing  only  God  and 
His  mighty  ways  in  history,  were  obliged  to  labor 
with  a  people  so  calloused  by  custom  as  to  be  in- 
different to  the  facts  before  their  eyes ;  so  muddled 
as  to  the  nature  of  God  and  meaning  of  religion 
as  to  offer  themselves  to  a  cleansing  discipline  as  a 
parched  field  begs  for  rain. 

Isaiah  understood  the  issue  of  events ;  the  Assyrian 
ax  was  coming  to  cut  off  superfluous  growths  on  the 


THE  STALENESS  OF  THE  YEARS   45 

beloved  vine,  but  before  he  could  bring  home  this 
tremendous  truth  to  the  calloused  conscience  of  the 
people  he  must  awaken  them  to  their  internal 
dangers;  he  must  justify  the  ways  of  God  by  con- 
vincing them  that  their  social,  moral,  and  spiritual 
condition  demanded  a  purging  discipline.  That  he 
was  obliged  to  take  indirect  methods  in  doing  this 
clearly  indicates  the  widespread  epidemic  of  this 
stale  mentality,  this  contented  dullness,  which  all  but 
proved  the  destruction  of  the  chosen  people. 

Isaiah  traced  the  staleness  of  mind  to  the  long 
peace  which  the  Israelites  had  enjoyed.  Until  the 
Assyrian  advance,  Palestine  had  never,  save  in  one 
instance,  been  invaded  by  a  great  world  power.  The 
people  knew  nothing  of  world  politics,  nor  had  they 
ever  had  experience  with  a  mighty  empire  seeking 
conquest  by  actual  destruction  of  small  nations. 
They  were  familiar  of  course  with  war,  but  it  was 
tribal  war,  either  with  their  heathen  neighbors,  or 
with  themselves.  Such  disturbances  were  familiar, 
commonplace,  and  therefore  to  be  taken  for  granted ; 
because  of  familiarity  with  this  sort  of  strife,  tribal 
wars  were  comparatively  unimportant.  In  fact  war 
meant  to  this  people,  episodic  conflicts  of  a  small 
and  inconsequential  character;  of  war  on  a  great 
scale  they  knew  nothing.  On  this  account  it  was 
easy  to  ignore  such  things,  and  practically  to  form 
their  views  of  national  and  political  life  on  a  peaceful 
model. 


46  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

We  understand  this  sort  of  thing.  You  will  re- 
call how  common  it  was  a  few  years  ago  to  refer 
to  the  twentieth  century  as  the  peaceful  century ; 
it  was  frequently  asserted  that  war  among  great 
nations  was  rapidly  becoming  impossible;  how  arbi- 
tration, peace  conferences,  and  the  general  excellence 
of  human  nature  so  highly  developed  under  the  in- 
spiring forms  of  modern  government,  were  soon  to 
make  war  unthinkable;  yet  there  were  certain  events 
that  were  not  considered  at  all.  There  have  been 
many  wars  among  civilized  peoples  in  the  past  thirty 
years ;  they  could  be  ignored,  however,  because  we 
could  afford  to  take  them  for  granted ;  they  were  all 
little  wars,  with  which  we  were  quite  familiar,  mere 
colonial  affairs,  which  did  not  affect  the  general 
viewpoint.  Because  we  were  accustomed  to  this 
type  we  could  afford  to  dismiss  it  from  our  calcula- 
tions. Now  this  was  the  way  Judah  felt  about  war. 
Discounting  tribal  strife,  for  all  intents  and  pur- 
poses Isaiah's  generation  had  grown  up  without 
knowing  defeat,  invasion,  or  any  of  the  privations 
of  real  war. 

The  long  peace  had  coincided  with  the  reigns  of 
two  great  men  whose  military  and  constructive 
genius  had  raised  their  nations  to  a  higher  standard 
of  external  excellence  than  had  been  enjoyed  by  the 
chosen  people  since  Solomon's  time.  Uzziah  in 
Judah  for  fifty  years,  and  Jeroboam  the  Second  in 
Israel    for    over    forty    years    had    dominated    the 


THE  STALENESS  OF  THE  YEARS   47 

imagination  and  shaped  the  patriotic  ideals  of  their 
age.  During  such  a  long  period  of  tranquillity, 
the  nations  were  able  to  live  in  comparative  secur- 
ity; men's  thoughts  tended  to  move  in  fixed  chan- 
nels, they  became  accustomed  to  certain  ways  of 
thinking  about  themselves ;  and  as  the  period  was 
prolonged  these  habits  fixed  the  character  of  the 
age,  and  closed  its  mind  to  all  disturbing  impres- 
sions. 

This  stale  mentality  was  further  encouraged  by 
another  factor  which  coincided  with  the  era  of  peace. 
For  more  than  a  century  Israel  and  Judah  had 
been  undergoing  profound  and  subtle  changes. 
This  people,  originally  nomads,  vinedressers,  and 
shepherds  gradually  developed  through  an  agricul- 
tural to  a  commercial  stage  of  life.  They  became 
aware  of  the  natural  resources  of  their  country, 
especially  its  singularly  favorable  location  on  the 
world's  greatest  trade  routes ;  villages  became  towns, 
towns  grew  into  cities,  and  the  population  passed 
from  a  rural  to  an  urban  state  of  life.  The  long 
peace,  under  the  direction  of  their  able  rulers 
brought  this  development  to  a  climax  and  ushered 
in  an  era  of  great  prosperity.  As  Isaiah  remarked, 
the  whole  land  was  full  of  silver  and  gold ;  traders, 
merchants,  directors  of  caravans,  foreign  business 
men,  developers  of  infant  industries,  and  the  rapid 
expansion  of  material  interests  in  all  directions 
tended  to  conform  the  life  of  the  times  to  a  com- 


48  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

mercial  mold;  moreover  it  determined  the  concep- 
tion of  the  state.  The  sturdy  peasant  of  former 
times  disappears  and  the  well-dressed  pushful  city 
man  takes  his  place.  Isaiah's  description  of  the 
life  of  that  age  reminds  us  of  our  modern  cities. 
There  are  the  crowded  streets,  the  strange  noises,  the 
fashionable  processions  through  the  highways,  the 
traffic  in  the  bazaars ;  and  most  significant,  the  pres- 
ence here  of  a  motley  crowd  of  foreigners,  for  it  is 
an  inevitable  consequence  of  commercial  develop- 
ment that  there  should  be  a  mixing  of  races.  If 
you  have  wares  to  sell  you  must  find  markets ;  the 
need  brought  Israel  into  the  closest  possible  con- 
tact with  other  nations,  and  this  in  turn  caused 
other  nations  to  react  in  the  most  effectual  way 
upon  the  manners  and  customs  of  this  hitherto  iso- 
lated people.  We  witness  the  rapid  infiltration  of 
foreign  fashions,  dress  and  modes  of  living,  in  one 
word  —  luxury.  The  old  life  had  been  rude,  simple, 
close  to  the  soil ;  this  new  life  was  more  delicate, 
refined,  and  complex,  and  of  course  more  expen- 
sive; and  this  developed  needs  of  an  aesthetic  kind, 
hitherto  foreign  to  the  Hebrew  taste:  for  adorn- 
ment, luxurious  homes,  and  house  furnishings,  for 
splendid  equipage  and  lavish  entertainment.  In 
short  we  see  in  the  middle  of  the  eighth  century  the 
rapid  transformation  of  the  descendants  of  the  rude 
old  settlers  of  the  land  into  a  polite  society  of  a 
strikingly   modern   type.     This   fixed   the  dominant 


THE  STALENESS  OF  THE  YEARS   49 

passion  of  the  people  to  refine,  improve,  and  culti- 
vate the  outside  of  life;  to  mold  it  after  that  of 
other  nations,  to  the  neglect  and  inevitable  corrup- 
tion of  the  inner  life.  It  was  an  age  in  which  men 
moved  heaven  and  earth  to  make  money,  while  the 
women  did  all  they  could  to  spend  it  in  lavish  and 
extravagant  ways.  We  meet  here  for  the  first  time 
with  the  shrewd  trickster  in  business,  the  parasite 
woman,  and  the  gilded  follies  of  a  smart  set. 
Well  did  Hosea  describe  it  in  a  mordant  epigram: 
"  Ephraim  is  a  cake  not  turned,"  a  state  of  society 
divided  into  hostile  classes,  "  with  large  appetites 
and  no  dinners  at  one  extreme,  and  large  dinners 
and  no  appetites  at  the  other,"  The  land  was  full  of 
the  extravagant  pageantry  of  society,  state  and 
even  the  church;  for  here  too  was  a  chance  to  make 
religious  custom  conform  to  the  expanding  life  and 
the  true  religion  was  mixed  up  with  much  that  was 
foreign  and  false.  It  is  true  that  Israel  had  done 
this  before,  but  never  with  such  passionate  eager- 
ness and  aesthetic  subtlety  as  now.  The  Temple  was 
crowded  at  all  hours  —  Temple  treaders  —  Isaiah 
called  them ;  there  was  lavish  display,  and  much 
singing  and  posturing;  while  you  could  hardly  look 
in  any  direction  without  seeing  in  the  streets,  the 
soothsayer,  the  diviner,  the  priest  of  a  foreign 
superstition,  or  some  wandering  philosopher  with 
strange  intellectual  wares  for  sale ;  while  yonder  on 
the  hills   were   the  pillars   and  groves   of  many   an 


50  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

obscene  cult.  The  land  was  full  of  silver  and  gold; 
full  too  of  foreign  idols,  of  men  with  lofty  looks  and 
women  with  haughty  eyes ;  and  everywhere  the  talk 
was  the  same,  of  optimism,  prosperity,  millenniums 
of  glory  and  the  golden  age  just  ahead. 

The  nation  was  proud  and  stifF-necked ;  it  had 
outward  reason  to  be  so,  for  was  it  not  a  great 
country?  Did  it  not  have  able  rulers,  and  was  it 
not  rich,  prosperous  and  well  groomed?  There  was 
always  something  going  on ;  there  was  much  noise 
of  the  builders,  the  streets  were  crowded  with  traffic, 
there  was  plenty  of  amusement  and  pleasure;  above 
all,  plenty  of  religion :  for  was  not  Israel  and  Judah 
the  chosen  of  God?  Did  not  Jehovah  exist  pri- 
marily for  the  protection  of  these  elect  peoples? 
What  then  should  they  care  about  the  Assyrian 
advance,  for  the  ravings  of  an  inexperienced  youth 
who  mistook  his  adolescent  moods  for  prophetic 
insight?  Had  they  not  subdued  Gaza,  and  some- 
times Damascus ;  and  was  Assyria  any  more  danger- 
ous than  these?  Precisely  as  if  one  had  said  in  our 
time:  Did  we  not  subdue  the  Boers,  or  Spain,  and 
is  Germany  to  be  feared  more  than  these  peoples? 

Indeed  it  was  a  difficult  task  to  enlighten  such 
people  as  these,  whose  eyes  were  gummed  up  and 
whose  ears  were  stopped  because  their  minds  were 
stale.  As  one  reads  the  story  of  Judah's  social 
decay,  together  with  her  appalling  lack  of  recep- 
tivity, it  makes  one  feel  as  if  one  were  looking  into 


THE  STALENESS  OF  THE  YEARS   51 

a  modern  banquet  hall  after  the  feasters  have  left 
it.  The  atmosphere  of  staleness  is  over  all;  the 
foul  stench  of  cigarette  smoke,  the  sickly  animal 
smell  of  congested  chambers,  the  paralyzing  dull- 
ness of  the  after-dinner  speeches  still  clogging  the 
mind  —  the  staleness  of  the  years  with  Assyria 
rolling  down  upon  the  land  one  hundred  miles  away, 
and  round  it  all  to  the  vision  of  the  prophet,  the 
blinding  fire  of  that  holy  atmosphere  —  God ! 

Let  us  see  what  Isaiah  and  his  contemporaries 
thought  of  this  condition  of  affairs.  Take  his 
description  of  the  seven-fold  wickedness  of  the  peo- 
ple. There  is  the  land-sin  —  the  passion  to  add 
house  to  house  and  field  to  field  for  the  purpose  of 
acquiring  an  added  importance  in  the  community ; 
the  desire  for  the  summer  house  and  the  winter 
house ;  the  wish  for  the  small  farm-steading  of  the 
sturdy  peasant  who  is  away  to  the  wars,  that  3'ou 
may  have  an  estate  and  call  it  after  your  name  and 
be  one  of  the  great  of  the  land.  Then  too,  there 
w^as  the  inevitable  effect  of  idleness  —  drunkenness 
and  dissipation.  In  a  refined  society  no  gentleman 
will  get  drunk  before  dinner,  but  these  near-gentle- 
men of  a  parvenu  aristocracy  got  drunk  in  the  morn- 
ing and  remained  so  until  late  at  night,  using  music 
and  dancing  —  that  last  resort  of  vacuous  minds, 
the  cabaret  show  of  modern  times  —  to  stimulate 
the  passion  for  pleasure.  These  people  were  draw- 
ing iniquity  with  cart  ropes,  and  in  their  drunken 


52  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

frenzy  saying,  "  Let  the  Assyrian  come  on,  that 
we  may  see  him;  fetch  him  out  that  we  may  smash 
him,"  and  even  with  sodden  leers  winking  at  God 
over  their  shoulders,  as  if  He  enjoyed  the  scene! 
There  were  others  who  called  evil  good,  and  good 
evil;  the  peddling  dilettanti  of  ancient  times,  who 
with  Nietzsche-like  subtlety  knew  how  to  substi- 
tute cleverness  for  truth,  preferring  the  making  of 
an  obscene  epigram  to  the  doing  of  a  decent  thing: 
insectiferous  minds  whose  maggot  thoughts  are  bred 
in  the  tropical  atmospheres  of  corrupt  society. 
There  were  men  who  made  a  god  of  prudence ;  sharp 
fellows  on  the  stock  exchange  who  knew  how  to  get 
hold  of  a  good  thing.  There  were  judges,  too,  who 
never  gave  decisions  unless  they  were  bribed,  and 
gossipers  whose  tongues  ran  like  fire  among  stubble ; 
whose  mouths,  to  use  Heine's  phrase,  were  "  veritable 
guillotines  of  reputations ;  who  never  closed  their 
incisive  jaws  that  some  venerable  head  did  not  fall 
into  the  basket."  And  among  them  all,  encouraging 
the  loose  tendencies  of  the  time,  were  despisers  of 
the  word  of  God.  Amos  saw  other  things;  men 
panting  after  the  dust  on  the  heads  of  suppliants, 
so  land  hungry  were  they;  ready  to  sell  the  needy 
for  a  pair  of  shoes,  and  sleeping  in  the  house  of 
God  on  garments  torn  from  the  shivering  backs  of 
widows,  whose  men  had  died  in  defense  of  the  land. 
A  strangely  modem  world,  this,  my  masters,  and 
here   is    a   remarkable   thing.     The    sins   denounced 


THE  STALENESS  OF  THE  YEARS   53 

by  the  prophets  are  the  sins  of  aristocrats,  of  the 
successful  of  the  earth.  The  human  race  may  be 
divided  into  shepherds  and  sheep.  Most  people  have 
to  remain  sheep  all  their  lives,  and  God  has  never 
been  greatly  concerned  about  their  behavior.  But 
He  has  been  particularly  interested  in  the  behavior 
of  the  shepherds,  the  leaders  of  men.  Christ  was 
interested  in  the  doings  of  the  sheep,  and  the  mis- 
doings of  the  shepherds.  He  praised  the  widow's 
mite ;  His  parables  abound  in  the  doings  of  the  poor ; 
He  talks  a  great  deal  of  the  least,  the  last,  and  the 
lost.  But  when  He  speaks  of  the  shepherds,  the 
leaders  and  molders  of  public  opinion,  He  is  con- 
cerned with  their  misdoings ;  and  solemnly  warns 
them  against  the  deadly  sins  of  hardness,  licentious- 
ness, hypocrisy,  and  slackness;  and  these  are  sins 
to  a  large  extent  of  cultured  leisure. 

This  point  of  view  is  common  to  the  Bible  as  a 
whole ;  and  it  was  this  that  prompted  Isaiah  to  test 
the  nation's  character  by  three  types  of  leaders: 
the  rulers,  the  women,  and  the  ministers  of  religion. 

It  is  probably  true,  as  Lord  Palmerston  observed, 
that  a  nation  gets  as  good  a  government  as  it  de- 
serves. Isaiah's  time  witnessed  the  passing  of  the 
old-fashioned  ruler,  and  the  coming  in  of  the  push- 
ful brazen  type,  whose  only  claim  to  notice  was 
founded  upon  success.  A  certain  Shebna  had,  with 
Tammany-like  shrewdness,  got  himself  elected  to 
the   office    of   mayor   of   the   palace.     Nobody   had 


54  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

ever  heard  of  him  before,  nor  could  any  one  dis- 
cover his  family  relationships.  His  name  did  not 
appear  in  the  social  register  of  the  time,  but  there  he 
was,  symbol  of  a  besotted  materialism,  and  this 
brazen,  impudent  creature  was  actually  building  for 
himself  a  magnificent  tomb  over  against  the  tombs 
of  the  prophets ;  so  that  he  might  achieve  posthumous 
fame,  as  well  as  earthly  success ;  and  why  should 
he  not?  If  success  be  a  criterion  of  virtue,  was  he 
not  just  as  good  as  David?  Isaiah  thought  not  and 
said  to  him :  "  God  will  hurl  thee  out  of  thy  posi- 
tion, thou  great  bladder  of  a  man,  and  roll  thee 
out  into  the  desert  where  thou  shalt  burst  with  a 
great  noise  and  disappear ;  and  in  thy  place  He  will 
put  a  man  of  character.  He  will  hammer  him  in, 
as  a  nail  in  a  strong  place,  but  beware,"  said  he  to 
that  generation,  "  lest  the  children  of  this  man  hang 
too  much  on  the  overburdened  nail  and  pull  it 
out  to  their  undoing."  Here  you  see  the  aristoc- 
racy of  brass  pushed  out  by  the  aristocracy  of 
brains,  which  in  turn  is  displaced  to  the  hurt  of 
the  nation  by  the  aristocracy  of  birth.  This  was 
the  sort  of  government  the  people  were  content  to  have. 
Isaiah's  criticism  of  the  fashionable  women  of  the 
time  is  very  pointed  and  just.  Amos,  a  rough 
countryman,  had  very  severe  words  for  the  women 
of  Israel,  calling  them  "  fat  cows  of  Bashan,  that 
are  upon  the  mountains  of  Samaria,"  selfish  to  the 
last    degree    and    ready    at    a    moment's    notice    for 


THE  STALENESS  OF  THE  YEARS   55 

panic.  Isaiah  was  a  cultured  gentleman  and  his 
description  is  more  refined ;  still  it  reads  like  an  ac- 
count of  Paris  fashions  out  of  Vogue  or  Vanity  Fair, 
and  what  he  describes  you  ma}^  see  any  spring  day 
on  the  principal  streets  of  our  American  cities. 
The  point  is,  not  that  Isaiah  condemned  refinement 
or  personal  adornment ;  but  that  these  women 
thought  of  nothing  else ;  they  lived  in  an  artificial 
atmosphere  of  vanity  and  futility  —  parasites  fat- 
tening upon  the  overstimulated  sensuality  of  a  cor- 
rupt society  ^-  and  if  the  mothers  of  Israel  were  to 
be  like  this,  what  w^as  to  become  of  the  children? 
His  criticisms  of  ministers  of  religion  are  even 
more  pointed.  Micah  with  the  clarity  of  a  country- 
bred  mind,  had  cleverly  described  them  as  those  who 
for  a  tangible  consideration,  were  ready  to  conse- 
crate any  enterprise.  "  Feed  us,"  they  seemed  to 
say,  "  bestow  upon  us  riches,  and  we  will  bless  your 
plans,"  but  if  you  by  an}'^  chance  should  withhold 
the  bribe,  they  stood  ready  to  call  down  God's  curse 
upon  you.  Isaiah,  more  penetratingly  shows  the 
false  prophet  and  priest  as  creatures  of  a  corrupt 
society,  ready  to  endorse  all  manner  of  wickedness, 
provided  it  did  not  interfere  with  their  vested  rights 
and  special  privileges.  Amos  gives  a  striking  pic- 
ture of  his  encounter  with  Amaziah,  priest  of  Bethel, 
and  the  point  of  view  of  Amaziah  in  contrast  with 
that  of  the  true  prophet,  throws  a  vivid  light  upon 
the  moral  confusions  of  the  time.     Amaziah  has  no 


56  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

conception  whatever  of  a  divine  mission;  prophecy 
with  him  is  only  a  means  to  a  good  living;  it  has 
given  him  a  superior  social  position,  and  he  resents 
the  intrusion  of  a  competitor,  especially  this  rude 
countryman  from  Tekoa,  into  his  private  preserve. 
He  assures  Amos  that  he  is  the  minister  of  the  first 
church  of  Bethel,  it  is  the  king's  sanctuary,  let 
him  never  forget  that,  and  a  royal  house;  that  is, 
the  king  had  a  pew  in  that  church,  came  there  occa- 
sionally and  gave  it  special  distinction.  He  insists 
that  Amos  respect  the  rights  of  the  craft,  return 
home  to  Tekoa  and  make  his  living  there,  and  come 
no  more  to  disturb  Israel,  meaning  of  course  Ama- 
ziah  and  his  special  privilege.  To  him  Amos  re- 
plied in  an  immortal  phrase :  "  I  was  no  prophet, 
neither  was  I  a  prophet's  son ;  but  I  was  an  herdman 
and  a  dresser  of  sycamore  trees ;  and  the  Lord  took 
me  from  following  the  flock,  and  the  Lord  said  unto 
me.  Go,  prophesy  unto  my  people  Israel." 

Such  criticisms  show  that  the  real  sin  of  Israel 
and  Judah  was  callousness  of  soul.  They  were  not 
grieved  for  the  affliction  of  Joseph;  they  had 
neither  pity  for  the  weak,  nor  sense  of  responsibility 
to  the  dependent.  Is  it  any  wonder  then,  that  Isaiah 
should  find  it  difficult  to  arouse  them  from  this  con- 
tented stupor?  Their  notion  of  religion  blinded 
them  to  their  danger.  Instead  of  regarding  God's 
favor  as  an  opportunity  for  righteous  service  of  the 
nation,  they  used  it  as  a  cloak  for  all  manner  of 


THE  STALENESS  OF  THE  YEARS   57 

wickedness.  It  was  upon  this  essential  hardness  of 
heart  which  Isaiah  traced  to  their  stale  minds,  that 
he  based  his  prediction  of  a  coming  judgment.  The 
moral  and  social  condition  of  Judah  made  the  As- 
syrian invasion  a  necessity. 

Again  we  are  impressed  with  the  modernity  of  all 
this,  for  our  nation  in  most  respects  has  passed 
through  a  similar  stage  of  development.  Like 
Israel  and  Judah,  we  have  known  nothing,  until 
recently,  of  real  war.  Such  wars  as  we  have  had 
were  mere  colonial  affairs,  like  that  of  the  Revolu- 
tion or  with  Spain.  The  war  that  has  made  the 
deepest  impression  upon  us,  the  Civil  War,  has  left 
lines  of  cleavage  and  sustained  sickly  sentimental- 
ities it  were  wisest  for  us  all  soonest  to  forget. 
We  have  been  compelled  to  create  a  mythology 
about  our  past,  and  surround  our  favorite  heroes 
with  a  cloud  of  myths  and  legends  of  an  almost 
supernatural  gravity  in  order  to  indulge  the  pleasant 
illusion  that  we  have  had  real  experiences  on  the 
tented  field. 

Until  quite  recently,  our  patriotism  has  been  sec- 
tional, capable  of  expressing  itself  in  episodic  ways, 
and  usually  in  association  with  some  favorite  preju- 
dice. The  present  generation  grew  up  in  an  atmos- 
phere of  peace,  unfamiliar  with  defeat,  invasion  or 
any  of  the  horrors  of  war.  Inheriting  a  series  of 
traditions  highly  favorable  to  our  self-conceit  it  is 
not  to  be  wondered  at  that  we  have  at  times  been 


58  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

bombastic,  self-assertive  and  full  of  pride.  Most  of 
the  errors  about  ourselves  have  come  from  this 
source,  notably  the  fixed  attitude,  until  recently, 
assumed  towards  entangling  alliances  and  foreign  re- 
lations. We  had  adopted  the  curious  delusion  that 
to  say  a  thing  was  about  the  same  thing  as  to  do  it ; 
because  for  instance  the  Monroe  Doctrine  had  never 
been  successfully  challenged,  we  assumed  that  this 
bulwark  of  the  Western  Hemisphere  was  based 
squarely  upon  our  power  to  sustain  it;  overlooking 
of  course  the  painful  but  salutary  truth  that  had  not 
the  policy  of  Great  Britain  coincided  with  ours,  the 
doctrine  would  have  been  challenged  long  ago.  As 
a  leading  authority  on  American  history.  Dr.  Latane 
has  recently  said:  "Had  Great  Britain  adopted 
a  high  tariff  policy  and  been  compelled  to  demand 
commercial  concessions  from  Latin  America  by 
force,  the  Monroe  Doctrine  would  long  since  have 
gone  by  the  board  and  been  forgotten." 

This  singular  satisfaction  with  ourselves  —  this 
fixed  belief  that  we  had  the  best  political  institu- 
tions, the  most  deserving  people,  and  the  highest 
type  of  civilization  blinded  us  to  our  true  provin- 
cialism, and  encouraged  the  growth  of  a  parochial 
phase  of  mind  which  enabled  us  to  measure  ourselves 
by  ourselves,  and  to  compare  ourselves  with  our- 
selves until  it  was  difficult  to  learn  anything  from 
older  and  more  cultured  nations. 


THE  STALENESS  OF  THE  YEARS   59 

This  curious  obsession  grew  with  our  passing  from 
an  agricultural  to  a  commercial  stage  of  life,  lead- 
ing as  it  did  to  an  enormous  increase  of  w^orldly 
prosperity,  and  with  it  unavoidable  contact  with 
other  nations  and  the  reaction  of  foreign  fashions 
upon  the  provincial  point  of  view. 

Thus  has  it  come  about  that  with  an  eager  adap- 
tation of  our  provincial  society  to  foreign  customs 
we  have  developed  a  cosmopolitan  life  characterized 
by  the  splendid  vices  and  loose  moralities  of  Euro- 
pean countries,  rather  than  by  their  more  worthy 
and  desirable  qualities ;  and  the  nation  has  rapidly 
filled  up  with  all  sorts  of  clever  people:  vagabond 
philosophers  hawking  the  rejected  wares  of  older 
civilizations ;  frantic  females  intoxicated  with 
emotional  vagaries ;  attractive  immoralists  pro- 
claiming a  millennium  of  unrestrained  animalism 
tempered  by  aestheticism ;  irresponsible  adventurers 
in  the  domain  of  the  spirit,  advocating  political 
sophistries,  strange  cults,  and  curious  religions :  until 
it  is  possible  to  see  in  any  large  American  city  to- 
day what  Isaiah  saw  in  Jerusalem  in  the  eighth 
century  b.  c. 

This  intense  interest  in  the  outside  of  life  blinded 
us  to  the  essential  fineness  of  the  inner  nature.  It 
was  God's  vision  of  the  submerged  fineness  in  Judah 
that  caused  Him  to  send  Assyria  on  her  fell  mis- 
sion of  destruction ;  such  an  experience  was  needed 


60  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

to  discover  it;  the  gold  was  there,  but  it  required  a 
refining  fire. 

Such  an  awakening  has  taken  place  among  us ;  we 
have  become  aware  of  the  need  of  closer  relations 
with  the  spiritual  world,  simply  because  we  have 
learned  that  we  are  spirits;  unhappily  just  now 
we  are  more  interested  in  impressions  than  in  essen- 
tial reality ;  still  the  newly  discovered  fineness  which 
has  resulted  from  the  sacrifices  of  the  war  is  a  great 
gain.  We  have  the  truth  about  ourselves,  and  it 
will  grow;  in  spite  of  our  superficial  materialism 
we  know  beyond  doubt  that  the  nation  is  idealistic. 
The  war  has  purged  us  of  mental  staleness,  and  men 
everywhere  are  thinking  intensely  and  thinking 
straight. 

But  there  is  no  necessary  reason  why  we  should 
be  a  better  nation  as  the  result  of  the  war;  on  the 
contrary  if  history  teaches  anything,  nations  are 
subject  to  violent  reactions.  If  this  is  not  to  be 
said  of  our  nation,  we  must  see  to  it  that  we  make 
full  use  of  our  great  but  passing  opportunity;  and 
that  opportunity  essentially  is  neither  social  nor 
political,  but  spiritual.  We  must  rid  ourselves  of  im- 
pressionism as  quickly  as  possible,  forsake  all  unsafe 
guides,  have  done  with  half  measures ;  above  all  we 
must  not  fall  back  into  the  old  ways  of  thinking 
about  ourselves,  but  have  the  courage  to  face  with 
bare  souls,  the  great  cleansing  fires  of  God. 

I  believe  we  are  sound  at  heart;  I  believe  in  our 


THE  STALENESS  OF  THE  YEARS  61 

capacity  for  true  religion ;  I  have  faith  that  we 
shall  successfully  meet  the  great  issues  of  the  war; 
but  my  chief  ground  for  hope  is  that  God  loves  us 
enough  to  hurt  us,  and  is  willing  to  bring  us  through 
fire  and  water  into  the  large  place  of  the  soul,  that 
we  may  be  fitted  for  His  society. 

We  must  wash  our  gummed-up  eyes  Avith  the 
tears  of  penitence  that  we  may  see;  we  must  open 
our  ears  to  hear  what  may  give  us  pain ;  we  must 
accustom  ourselves  to  the  most  searching  self-exam- 
ination ;  we  must  try  to  understand  the  times  until 
we  are  freed  from  the  tyranny  of  loose  impres- 
sions and  come  in  contact  with  essential  reality ;  we 
must  be  willing  to  leave  the  frail  shelters  which  the 
German  ax  has  crushed  and  live  in  the  cold  but 
invigorating  atmosphere  of  God's  austerity.  By  so 
doing,  we  shall  exchange  the  crude  provincialism 
of  an  earth-centered  mind  for  the  true  cosmopolitan- 
ism of  a  God-centered  personality.  It  is  by  great 
and  terrible  things  that  God  has  answered  us.  We 
have  sinned  against  our  essential  fineness  —  our 
spirituality  of  nature  —  and  it  is  for  this  that  God 
has  sent  us  through  the  cleansing  fire.  Once  accept 
this  discipline  with  a  firm  determination  to  see  it 
through,  and  we  are  brought  into  the  spacious  at- 
mospheres from  which  the  great  prophet  is  speak- 
ing; it  is  in  returning  and  rest  we  shall  be  saved; 
in  quietness  and  in  confidence  shall  our  strength  be. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE    IRONIC    REALISM    OF    GOD 

Isaiah  xxviii:13:  "Therefore  shall  the  word  of  the  Lord  be 
unto  them  precept  upon  precept,  precept  upon  precept;  line 
upon  line,  line  upon  line;  here  a  little,  there  a  little;  that 
they  may  go,  and  fall  backward,  and  be  broken,  and  snared, 
and  taken." 

The  ruling  classes  in  Jerusalem  were  at  first  dis- 
posed to  ignore  the  prophet's  warnings,  but  circum- 
stances soon  changed  their  feeling  into  one  of  toler- 
ant interest. 

In  the  middle  of  the  eighth  century,  b.  c.  Pales- 
tine, after  a  long  and  prosperous  peace,  was  drawn 
into  world  politics  by  the  invasion  of  Assyria. 
After  many  years  of  preparation  she  began  her 
westward  thrust  in  b.  c.  745,  with  Egypt  as  her  ob- 
jective. She  did  not  reach  her  goal,  however,  until 
B.  c.  672,  her  military  activities  covering  a  period 
of  seventy  three  years ;  but  during  that  time  her 
armies  were  almost  constantly  in  Palestine,  and  only 
one  kingdom  remained  at  the  end  that  had  anything 
resembling  independence.  This  was  due  in  great 
measure  to  the  statesmanlike  leadership  of  Isaiah. 

62 


THE  IRONIC  REALISM  OF  GOD         63 

Five  years  after  the  beginning  of  the  westward 
movement  Isaiah  was  called  to  the  prophetic  office. 
In  the  year  that  king  Uzziah  died  he  saw  the  Lord, 
and  became  convinced  of  the  onliness  of  God  and  the 
universal  scope  of  His  providence.  He  believed  that 
sovereignty  was  rooted  in  righteousness,  and  by 
righteousness  he  meant  no  mere  static  quality  of 
an  absentee  deity,  but  an  intensely  active  and  dy- 
namic force  —  an  atmosphere  of  holy  fire  burning 
round  men  and  nations  and  things.  Only  the  real 
could  live  in  the  fire. 

From  this  notable  conception  he  derived  two  of  his 
most  effective  convictions.  One  was  that  while  As- 
syria could  do  a  great  deal  of  harm  to  weaker  na- 
tions, she  was  doomed  to  destruction  in  the  end  be- 
cause she  was  not  real ;  she  could  not  live  in  the  fire. 
She  was  therefore  just  an  instrument  in  the  Divine 
hand ;  God's  ax  to  carry  out  His  disciplinary  pur- 
poses. This  purging  judgment,  admittedly  terrible 
in  its  visible  effect,  was  by  virtue  of  his  second  con- 
viction, really  a  manifestation  of  loving  kindness  to 
the  chosen  people.  Judah  must  go  through  the 
fire,  but  she  would  come  out  of  it,  a  refined  and 
beautiful  thing. 

Still  the  prophet  found  it  almost  impossible  in 
the  beginning  to  rouse  the  nation  to  its  danger. 
The  long  peace,  under  the  administration  of  Uzziah 
had  coincided  with  a  remarkable  commercial  and 
material    expansion.     The    whole    land    was    full    of 


64  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

silver  and  gold,  and  as  a  consequence  of  luxury  and 
splendid  vice.  Moreover  this  development  had  cor- 
rupted the  true  religion  and  exposed  the  people  to 
the  machinations  of  time-serving  priests  and  false 
prophets.  All  classes  of  society  were  venal.  This 
was  particularly  true  of  the  rulers  and  leaders  of 
public  opinion.  The  upper  classes  were  wholly  dis- 
inclined to  take  a  serious  view  of  the  situation. 
Isaiah's  severe  condemnation  of  the  fashionable 
women  of  the  time  was  not  based  upon  a  dislike 
of  culture  or  outward  refinement  of  life,  but  because 
this  rank  extravagance  was  a  symptom  of  a  deeper 
disease ;  it  was  the  sign  of  a  shallow  mind  and  spirit. 
If  the  mothers  of  Israel  were  content  to  live  for 
the  outside  of  life,  and  remained  indifferent  to  its 
inner  soundness,  what  would  the  future  he?  The 
glittering  pageant  of  outward  prosperity  blinded 
the  nation  to  its  internal  dangers.  Its  mind  was 
stale  and  set  in  fixed  channels ;  it  was  incapable  of 
receiving  instruction;  its  eyes  were  gummed  up  and 
its  ears  stopped;  even  its  notion  of  religion  was  an 
additional  element  of  weakness.  Nothing  short  of 
a  terrible  experience :  something  that  would  hurt  and 
wound,  could  rouse  the  nation  to  its  higher  mission, 
for  it  was  deliberately  sinning  against  the  light, 
and  in  missing  truth  was  wronging  its  own  soul. 

As  has  been  indicated  the  sins  denounced  by  the 
prophet  were  those  of  the  aristocrats,  leaders,  and 
shepherds  of  the  nation.     Instead  of  using  their  ad- 


THE  IRONIC  REALISM  OF  GOD        65 

vantage  for  the  benefit  of  the  people,  they  had 
squandered  their  resources  on  pleasures,  and  were 
not  grieved  for  the  affliction  of  Joseph.  In  love 
with  lies,  terribly  afraid  of  truth,  they  had  become 
so  familiar  with  religious  observances  as  to  forget 
the  very  nature  of  God.  The  condition  of  the  whole 
land  was  such  that  it  called  for  a  purging  judg- 
ment, as  a  parched  field  begs  for  rain. 

Isaiah  saw  this  coming  in  the  Assyrian  advance 
upon  Palestine ;  how  then  could  he  awaken  the  people 
to  their  danger.^  He  enjoyed  certain  advantages 
not  possessed  by  his  contemporaries.  Prophets  like 
Amos,  a  rude  countryman,  or  Micah,  a  native  of  a 
provincial  town,  had  no  opportunity  of  mingling  with 
the  influential  classes.  The  people  paid  little  atten- 
tion to  these  rank  outsiders  at  the  time ;  only  when 
in  the  midst  of  the  terrible  experiences  of  the  As- 
syrian invasion  did  they  recall  the  preaching  of  these 
unknown  men.  But  with  Isaiah  it  was  different. 
An  aristocrat  himself  he  had  close  contact  with  the 
ruling  classes  and  understood  their  mental  attitude. 
He  was  an  associate  of  the  king,  the  intimate  com- 
panion of  princes,  diplomats  and  soldiers,  and  in 
full  possession  of  the  small  talk  of  their  dinner  tables. 
He  could  form  an  accurate  estimate  of  their  thoughts 
by  considering  the  unconscious  by-play  of  their 
minds,  in  conversations  heard  or  overheard  at  their 
social  entertainments. 

Moreover,  in  addition  to  his  supreme  endowment 


66  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

as  a  prophet,  Isaiah  had  a  mind  of  vast  range  and 
power;  he  was  a  statesman  of  the  first  rank  and 
had  a  clear  insight  into  his  times.  He  could  fore- 
cast the  drift  of  events  before  they  ripened.  More 
than  any  of  his  age,  he  saw  the  essential  signifi- 
cance of  the  Assyrian  advance,  and  consistently 
held  up  to  that  generation  the  danger  growing  out 
of  its  geographical  position.  Midway  betw^een  the 
upper  and  nether  millstone  of  the  Nile  and  Mesopo- 
tamian  valleys  he  was  fully  alive  to  the  fact  that 
Palestine  must  become  the  battleground  of  mutu- 
ally antagonistic  civilizations.  Above  all,  he  knew 
the  weakness  of  these  Palestinian  states,  complicated 
as  it  was  by  the  obstinate  stupidity  of  the  rulers, 
and  rightly  regarded  the  policies  of  his  own  people 
as  worthless. 

These  things  being  so,  events  developed  to  the 
point  where  it  was  possible  for  him  to  offer  sug- 
gestions as  to  what  should  be  done.  Then,  as  now, 
men  settled  many  important  matters  around  the 
dinner  table,  and  this  twenty  eighth  chapter  is  an 
account  of  what  took  place  at  one  of  the  great  state 
dinners  held  in  Jerusalem. 

Certain  things  had  happened  to  arouse  the  rulers 
to  their  danger.  The  fall  of  the  great  northern 
fortress  at  Hamath,  the  conquest  of  Damascus,  the 
siege  of  Tyre  which  had  now  been  going  on  for  two 
years,  and  the  gradual  approach  of  Assyria  to  the 
walls  of  Samaria  finally  forced  the  rulers  of  Jerusa- 


THE  IRONIC  REALISM  OF  GOD        67 

lem  to  consider  the  possibility  of  a  siege  of  their  own 
city  also.  At  first  the  slow  progress  of  the  Assyrian 
army,  the  immense  difficulty  it  encountered  in  ham- 
mering its  way  to  the  approaches  of  Palestine,  and 
the  fact  that  revolts  in  Babylon  required  a  suspen- 
sion of  the  movement  from  time  to  time,  encouraged 
the  people  of  Judah  to  dismiss  their  fears  and  shut 
their  ears  to  the  prophet's  warnings.  Under  such 
conditions  it  was  easy  to  remain  contemptuous  and 
indifferent.  But  circumstances  now  altered  this 
view.  Assyria's  progress  was  slow  but  sure,  and 
the  people  were  beginning  to  be  afraid;  they  began 
to  speak  of  Assyria  as  an  overflowing  scourge,  a 
mighty  tidal  wave  of  death  and  destruction  rolling 
over  the  land.  Measures  must  be  devised  for  meet- 
ing it  someway;  so  the  rulers  had  a  dinner  party 
in  Jerusalem  to  discuss  the  matter,  and  fortunately 
for  us,  Isaiah  was  present. 

An  interesting  side  light  is  thrown  upon  their 
mental  condition  by  the  means  selected  for  the  settle- 
ment of  so  serious  a  matter.  It  is  safe  to  say  that 
these  people  were  as  yet  quite  hopeful  and  opti- 
mistic, otherwise  they  would  not  first  have  cloyed 
their  bodies  with  much  eating  and  their  brains  with 
much  drinking  before  taking  hold  of  such  a  prob- 
lem; and  yet,  as  Isaiah  tells  it,  the  fact  is  plain 
that  these  priests,  statesmen,  and  soldiers  were  drunk 
before  they  began  their  discussion.  It  was  even 
so   with    Samaria   now    within   three   years    of    cap- 


68  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

tivity  and  destruction ;  this  shows  how  unfit  these 
men  were  for  leadership  in  such  a  crisis. 

We  shall  consider  the  measures  proposed  by  the 
rulers,  Isaiah's  criticisms  of  them,  his  remedy,  and 
their  final  attitude  towards  his  advice. 

Four  policies  were  advocated  round  that  dinner 
/  table  by  the  soldier,  the  merchant,  the  diplomat, 
and  the  priest,  respectively :  fight,  pay,  parley,  pray. 
The  soldier  said :  "  Let  us  fight  the  Assyrian,"  and 
among  them  all,  he  was  the  best  representative  of 
the  manhood  of  the  nation.  There  was,  too,  some 
justification  of  this  advice  because  Hezekiah  had 
then  come  to  the  throne  and  had  displayed  some 
military  skill  and  administrative  talent,  among  other 
things  he  had  materially  improved  the  defensive 
power  of  the  city.  The  man  of  business  said:  "  It 
is  not  necessary  to  fight,  it  will  disturb  business  too 
much.  It  will  be  better  for  us  all  to  bribe  the  As- 
syrian; it  is  just  a  question  of  money  anyway; 
let  us  pay  him  a  great  tribute  and  he  will  pass  us 
by."  Now  this  scheme  had  worked  in  the  days 
of  Ahaz,  who  against  Isaiah's  advice,  had  invited 
Assyria  to  protect  him  against  an  invasion  from  his 
neighbors.  Assyria  had  promptly  accepted  the  in- 
vitation and  exacted  an  enormous  tribute;  which, 
while  it  proved  burdensome  was  regarded  by  the 
business  interests  of  the  country  as  the  less  of  two 
evils.  Better,  they  thought,  to  be  in  bondage  to 
Assyria  than  have  war  with  their  neighbors,  and  the 


THE  IRONIC  REALISM  OF  GOD        69 

weak  king  was  willing  to  have  peace  at  any  price. 
The  men  of  business  now  proposed  to  continue  this 
policy  even  though  they  had  to  increase  the  bribe, 
rather  than  jeopardize  the  business  interests  of  the 
country  by  a  war-like  resistance  of  the  Assyrian 
thrust.  The  diplomat,  however,  was  willing  neither 
to  fight  nor  pay.  He  had  another  scheme  and  pro- 
posed an  alliance  with  Egypt.  This  old  nation 
under  the  leadership  of  a  resourceful  king  had  re- 
cently taken  on  new  life  and  was  making  a  great 
deal  of  superficial  preparation  for  war.  It  seemed 
quite  the  proper  thing  for  Judah  to  ally  herself  with 
Egypt  especially  as  ambassadors  from  that  country 
had  been  in  Jerusalem  advocating  this  new  thing; 
and  in  all  likelihood  some  were  sitting  at  that  very 
table.  The  priest,  however,  was  of  the  opinion  that 
nothing  should  be  done ;  it  was  better  to  let  well 
enough  alone.  Everybody  knew  that  Judah  was 
under  the  protection  of  God;  He  had  never  in  the 
past  permitted  a  heathen  nation  to  destroy  the 
chosen  people  and  there  was  no  reason  why  they 
should  think  so  now.  To  assert  such  a  possibility 
was  blasphemy ;  besides  were  they  not  even  then 
living  in  a  glorious  time?  Were  they  not  prosper- 
ous, cultured  and  religious,  and  did  they  not  have 
plenty  of  accomplished  priests  to  guide  them?  Let 
the  people  trust  in  God  and  all  would  be  well.  Such 
were  the  views  of  national  policy  discussed  between 
courses  at  this  banquet  in  Jerusalem. 


70  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

Whether  he  was  there  by  invitation  or  not,  we  have 
no  means  of  knowing;  but  Isaiah  was  present  and 
listened  patiently  to  all  that  was  said;  and  then  he 
ventured  to  offer  some  criticisms  of  the  policies  pro- 
posed. 

To  the  soldier  he  said :  "  I  admire  your  cour- 
age but  I  cannot  praise  your  judgment,  for  you 
ought  to  know  that  Judah  is  not  in  a  position  to 
meet  Assyria  in  the  open.  We  are  a  small  people, 
our  army  is  accustomed  only  to  tribal  warfare,  but 
this  Assyrian  campaign  is  something  entirely  dif- 
ferent. It  is  a  movement  of  a  first  class  world  power, 
with  methods  of  unusual  warfare  and  almost  bound- 
less resources ;  our  soldiers  cannot  successfully  resist 
it  on  any  terms."  To  the  suggestion  of  the  business 
men  that  the  danger  be  met  by  tribute,  he  said: 
"  I  am  in  favor  of  continuing  the  tribute  promised 
by  Ahaz,  since  to  withhold  it  will  invite  disaster; 
but  I  am  opposed  to  increasing  it,  for  it  is  useless 
to  expect  this  dishonorable  and  truce-breaking  na- 
tion to  keep  its  promises.  No  amount  of  money  can 
check  the  Assyrian's  headlong  passion  for  world 
dominion;  and  any  treaty  we  might  make  with  him 
would  be  only  a  "  scrap  of  paper."  As  for  the  sug- 
gestion that  we  make  an  offensive  alliance  with 
Egypt,  nothing  could  be  more  unwise.  Can  you  not 
see  that  Egypt  even  under  the  most  favorable  con- 
ditions is  no  match  for  Assyria  in  the  field?  Are 
you    not    aware    that    Assyria's    objective    is    the 


THE  IRONIC  REALISM  OF  GOD        71 

conquest  of  Egypt  and  that  we  are  involved  only 
because  we  happen  to  be  in  the  way  of  this  movement? 
Is  it  not  clear  to  you  that  it  is  to  Egypt's  advan- 
tage to  retard  the  Assyrian  advance  as  much  as 
possible,  and  that  it  is  highly  expedient  for  her 
to  use  us  as  buffer  states?  You  think  she  is  strong 
because  she  is  old;  you  are  doubtless  impressed  with 
her  feverish  military  activity,  and  the  specious  elo- 
quence of  her  ambassadors ;  but  do  not  be  deceived ; 
the  purpose  of  Egyptian  diplomacy  is  to  involve 
us  with  Assyria  and  slow  up  her  advance ;  besides, 
Egypt  is  a  moribund  nation,  a  blustering  braggart 
whose  strength  is  to  sit  still.  She  excels  in  prom- 
ises and  seems  quite  capable  so  long  as  she  is  in- 
active ;  but  when  her  armies  meet  those  of  Assyria 
she  will  prove  her  utter  ineffectiveness ;  her  strength 
is  to  sit  still,  to  remain  inactive  as  long  as  possible ; 
but  when  she  moves  she  will  break  in  pieces,  and  if 
you  fall  in  with  this  alliance  you  will  break  with 
her."  As  for  the  advice  of  the  priests  he  said: 
"  On  the  face  of  it,  it  is  good  counsel,  for  nothing 
is  so  important  just  now  as  a  genuine  return  unto 
the  Lord ;  but  can  you  not  see  that  this  priestly 
advice  carries  with  it  no  promise  whatever  of  re- 
form ;  that  the  corruption  of  the  nation,  the  rank 
hypocrisy  of  priest  and  prophet,  the  complete  sec- 
ularization of  religion  are  unmistakable  evidences 
of  your  profound  ignorance  of  God ;  and  that  the 
fact  so  greatly  trusted  in  by  these  false  religious 


72  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

guides  —  that  Judah  is  under  the  protection  of 
Jehovah  —  so  far  from  giving  you  immunity  from 
the  coming  discipline,  makes  you  tenfold  more  the 
object  of  it?  Because  you  are  the  Lord's  chosen 
people,  He  will  punish  you  for  all  your  sins.  Do  not 
put  your  trust  in  any  of  these  policies,  for  I  tell 
you  plainly  they  will  lead  to  your  destruction." 

"  What  then,"  asked  these  well  fed  gentlemen, 
"  is  your  remedy  for  these  evils  ?  "  And  Isaiah  an- 
swered :  "  A  real  return  unto  God.  Do  you  not  see 
that  these  things  are  coming  on  you  because  of 
your  wickedness?  Your  silver  has  become  dross,  and 
your  wine  is  mixed  with  water ;  your  princes  are 
rebellious,  and  companions  of  thieves ;  everyone 
loveth  bribes,  and  followeth  after  rewards ;  they 
judge  not  the  fatherless,  neither  doth  the  cause  of 
the  widow  come  unto  them.  Why  should  ye  be 
stricken  anymore?  The  whole  head  is  sick  and  the 
whole  heart  faint;  from  the  sole  of  the  foot  even 
unto  the  head  there  is  no  soundness  in  it,  but  wounds, 
and  bruises  and  putrifying  sores :  they  have  not  been 
closed,  neither  bound  up,  neither  mollified  with  oint- 
ment. Wash  you,  and  make  you  clean,  put  away 
the  evil  of  your  doings;  learn  to  do  well;  seek  judg- 
ment, and  relieve  the  oppressed.  Come  now,  and  let 
us  reason  together,  saith  the  Lord ;  though  your  sins 
be  as  scarlet,  they  shall  be  as  white  as  snow;  though 
they  be  red  like  crimson,  they  shall  be  as  wool.  Your 
safety  lies  in  repentance :  in  returning  and  rest  shall 


THE  IRONIC  REALISM  OF  GOD        73 

ye  be  saved;  in  quietness  and  in  confidence  shall 
your  strength  be ;  for  God  has  laid  in  Zion  a  chief 
cornerstone,  elect,  tried  and  precious ;  through  you 
as  with  no  other  people  can  He  realize  His  righteous 
purposes  in  the  world;  therefore  He  will  not  permit 
Assyria  to  destroy  a  nation  with  such  responsibility 
as  this.  The  Assyrian  will  do  much  mischief;  you 
will  suffer  loss  of  goods,  you  will  be  driven  out  of 
the  comfortable  shelters  that  have  proved  your 
spiritual  undoing,  into  the  cold  clean  winds  of  God's 
austerity;  but  it  will  arouse  you  to  the  essential 
fineness  of  your  nature,  which  in  quieter  times  you 
have  despised ;  it  will  bring  you  back  to  holiness  and 
righteousness,  to  love  and  loyalty;  and  in  these 
things  shall  your  strength  be.  God  will  burn  you 
with  the  same  fire  that  shall  ultimately  destroy  As- 
syria;  but  you  will  come  out  of  it  a  refined  and  beau- 
tiful thing,  fit  for  His  society  and  ready  for  your 
great  religious  mission.  Do  not  then  shrink  from 
this  discipline  like  a  lot  of  cowards,  do  not  run  from 
the  Hand  whose  very  heaviness  just  now  proves  its 
love;  accept  the  discipline  bravely  and  openly,  and 
3^ou  will  become  a  people  worthy  of  Divine  confi- 
dence." 

This  was  great  advice  and  we  can  easily  see  how 
wisely  presented.  How  did  they  receive  it.?  They 
rejected  it  with  the  utmost  contempt  on  the  ground 
that  it  was  childish,  familiar,  and  commonplace. 
"  You  speak  to  us,"  they  said,  "  as  if  we  were  a  lot 


74  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

of  nurslings ;  precept  upon  precept,  precept  upon 
precept,  line  upon  line,  line  upon  line,  here  a  little, 
and  there  a  little ;  "  mere  kindergarten  talk.  The 
contemptuous  monotony  of  this  reply  can  best  be 
realized  if  we  use  Professor  Whitehouse's  translation  : 
"  law  on  law,  law  on  law,  saw  on  saw,  saw  on  saw ; 
a  bittie  here  and  a  bittie  there." 

Their  objection  was  that  instead  of  novel  ideas 
to  meet  an  admittedly  great  situation  the  man  of 
God  came  with  something  that  had  been  familiar 
from  childhood:  a  foolish  suggestion  about  repent- 
ance, and  the  like;  religion  forsooth  and  church 
going,  and  prayer  and  faith,  as  if  they  did  not  know 
all  about  this  sort  of  thing. 

Now  while  it  is  true  that  they  were  familiar  with 
Isaiah's  words,  they  did  not  comprehend  the  first 
.principles  of  what  he  meant ;  and  they  missed  it, 
as  we  usually  do,  simply  because  truth  had  become 
familiar  and  nothing  else.  Most  of  the  fundamental 
principles  of  life,  especially  those  that  have  to  do 
with  moral  and  spiritual  experience  are  common 
and  familiar  truths ;  but  they  are  not  on  that  account 
less  important.  In  some  ways  the  commonness  of 
a  truth  is  the  measure  of  its  value  to  mankind. 

Cicero  remarked  of  the  men  of  his  time,  "  that 
instead  of  trying  as  they  ought  to  make  themselves 
strange  to  the  familiar,  they  strive  on  the  contrary 
to  make  themselves  familiar  with  the  strange ;  "  and 
this   is   a  good   description   of  the  mental   attitude 


THE  IRONIC  REALISM  OF  GOD         75 

taken  towards  religious  advice  by  the  cultivated  peo- 
ple of  Isaiah's  age.  They  did  not  know  what  the 
prophet  meant  by  religion ;  for  religion  to  them  had 
come  to  mean,  first  and  last,  novelty,  newness,  ritual 
and  ceremony;  something  fresh,  splendid  and  or- 
nate. 

They  went  among  foreign  peoples  with  a  disordered 
imagination  and  borrowed  new  religious  customs ; 
new  kinds  of  incense  and  new  altars,  and  new  fangled 
church  decorations.  There  were  high  church  and 
low  church  and  broad  church  notions  abounding; 
and  new  gods  and  goddesses  from  Damascus  and 
Tyre,  and  Gaza  and  Egypt.  They  patronized  all 
sorts  of  frauds :  soothsayers  and  diviners,  wandering 
philosophers  and  unfrocked  priests,  and  delighted 
in  the  knavery  and  humbuggery  that  goes  with  a 
cloyed  intelligence  and  a  besotted  soul;  while  such 
fundamentals  as  truth  telling  and  cleanness  of  mind, 
righteous  dealing  with  neighbors  and  a  saving  sense 
of  the  reality  of  God  were  dismissed  because  they 
were  familiar  and  commonplace.  Dives  was  such  a 
man.  He  was  quite  familiar  with  Moses  and  the 
prophets,  and  demanded  some  new  thing  —  a  man 
rising  from  the  dead  —  for  instance  as  an  evidence 
of  religious  reality.  Such  people  who  perish  from 
excess  of  light,  expect  a  private  entrance  to  the  king- 
dom of  heaven ;  but  for  truth,  and  righteousness  and 
purity  of  soul,  they  have  no  taste,  and  usually  dis- 
miss the  prophet  because  he  is  dealing  with  some- 


76  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

thing  so  trite  and  familiar  that  it  savors  of  nursery 
talk. 

And  for  the  moment  Isaiah's  hearers  tried  to  get 
rid  of  him  and  his  unpleasant  advice.  But  he  came 
back  at  them :  "  Very  well :  you  do  not  like  my 
message;  you  reject  it  because  you  have  heard  it 
before ;  then  listen :  the  time  will  soon  come  when  God 
will  speak  to  you  in  another  way.  When  you  hear 
the  steady  thump  of  the  battering  rams  on  your 
mud  walls,  and  the  stammering  tongues  of  a  strange 
and  mighty  people  about  your  city  —  the  Assyrian 
at  your  gates,  and  you,  in  spite  of  your  tribute  and 
your  Egyptian  alliance,  in  utter  paralysis  —  then 
O  proud  people,  you  will  recall  my  words,  and  be- 
come aware  of  their  truth;  then  you  will  discover 
the  terrible  realism  of  the  commonplace  and  familiar, 
the  strange  irony  of  God:  law  on  law,  saw  on  saw, 
a  bittie  here  and  a  bittie  there ;  and  when  you  realize 
it  you  will  stumble  and  fall  backward ;  your  military 
policy  will  collapse,  your  diplomacy  will  disappoint 
you  and  your  religion  will  prove  a  refuge  of  lies." 

Isaiah's  teaching  amounts  to  this  that  if  men  will 
not  learn  God's  will  by  precept,  they  must  realize 
it  through  bitter  experience.  That  is  why  disillu- 
sion plays  so  large  a  part  in  practical  education. 
The  contemptuous  attitude  often  taken  towards 
familiar  truth,  so  far  from  indicating  superior  cul- 
ture, is  in  reality  a  symptom  of  fear.  It  is  the 
habit  of  the  coward  to  boast  of  his  courage  as  it 


THE  IRONIC  REALISM  OF  GOD        77 

is  of  the  ignorant  to  brag  about  his  knowledge.  An 
impressionist  who  is  afraid  to  face  the  deeps  of  life 
may  dismiss  the  prophet's  words,  but  he  must  reckon 
eventually  with  the  disillusioning  fact.  The  word 
of  truth  may  stop  the  ears,  but  the  commonplace 
event  will  open  them  again :  that  is  why  true  prophets 
must  wait  for  the  vindication  of  history. 

Twenty  five  years  later  the  impressionists  of  Jeru- 
salem were  brought  face  to  face  with  the  disenchant- 
ing fact.  Assyria  did  everything  Isaiah  said  she 
would  do.  The  soldiers  with  the  aid  of  Arabian 
mercenaries  tried  to  meet  her  in  the  field  and  were 
put  to  rout ;  the  business  man  endeavored  to  bribe 
her:  she  took  his  money,  but  the  treaty  turned  out 
to  be  a  covenant  with  death  and  hell;  the  diplomat 
made  his  alliance  with  Egypt ;  Egypt  broke  down 
and  chaos  arrived  on  schedule  time;  while  the  priest 
was  among  the  first  to  abandon  all  hope,  counsel 
the  people  to  a  "  riotous  folly  of  despair  "  and 
vanish  into  outer  darkness.  The  streets  of  the  holy 
city  were  filled  with  a  disorderly  crowd  of  soldiers 
without  arms,  of  diplomats  who  had  forgotten  their 
dignity,  of  business  men  without  their  strong  boxes, 
and  false  prophets  with  white  faces  and  palsied  limbs  ; 
while  everywhere  were  mobs  of  frantic  fools  shout- 
ing, "  Let  us  eat  and  drink,  for  tomorrow  we  die ;  " 
and  the  great  prophet  looking  upon  it  all  with  noble 
scorn  and  saying:  "What  aileth  thee  now,  O  Ju- 
dah?     Hath  it  not  come  to  pass  even  as  I  said?  " 


78  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

Isaiah  had  insisted  that  some  of  God's  most  im- 
portant revelations  come  through  the  medium  of  the 
commonplace.  What  for  instance  could  be  more 
familiar  than  the  word  "  holiness,"  but  the  idea  it 
conveyed  in  the  prophet's  teaching  was  entirely  new. 
Holiness,  to  the  impressionistic  Hebrew  meaning  lit- 
tle more  than  ceremonial  purity,  had  to  do  with  a 
familiar  ritual ;  but  holiness  in  Isaiah's  teaching 
meant  an  active,  dynamic  rig'hteousness  —  an  atmos- 
phere of  fire,  burning  ceaselessly  about  men  and 
nations  and  things,  which  was  the  only  test  of 
reality.  This  vital  element  stood  like  a  curtain  of 
flame  between  Assyria  and  Judah ;  it  was  the  sole 
guarantee  of  Jerusalem's  inviolability;  but  Judah's 
rulers  refused  to  believe  in  it  on  the  ground  that  it 
was  commonplace,  and  because  they  preferred  the 
more  novel  suggestions  of  hypocritical  diplomats 
and  time-serving  priests.  There  was  nothing  left 
but  to  wait  for  the  issue  of  events.  What  they  re- 
fused to  learn  from  commonplace  precepts,  they 
came  to  understand  through  commonplace  experience. 

In  ordinary  times  it  is  the  habit  of  impressionists 
to  prefer  what  is  new  or  novel,  to  that  which  is 
familiar.  This  is  the  peculiar  vice  of  the  cultivated 
intellect.  When  it  leaves  the  narrow  domain  of  its 
professional  interests  to  range  the  spacious  at- 
mospheres of  the  world,  it  is  often  cursed  with  exces- 
sive credulity.  The  common  mind,  that  has  not  en- 
joyed the  doubtful  advantage  of  a  utilitarian  culture 


THE  IRONIC  REALISM  OF  GOD         79 

is  usually  conservative ;  it  is  accustomed  to  find  vital 
wisdom  in  the  familiar  facts  of  life.  Experience 
teaches  it  caution.  But  under  certain  conditions  a 
modern  doctor  of  philosophy  will  believe  anything. 
The  easiest  place  to  develop  a  new  cult  or  novel 
superstition  is  a  university  campus.  As  a  rule 
modern  educational  methods  produce  trained  minds 
rather  than  disciplined  personalities ;  and  such,  for 
want  of  something  to  vary  the  monotony  of  profes- 
sional pursuits  will  often  fall  into  the  error  that 
Cicero  condemned  when  he  said  that  the  disposition 
of  cultured  men  of  his  time  was  "  instead  of  trying 
as  they  ought  to  make  themselves  strange  to  the 
familiar,  they  strove,  on  the  contrary  to  render 
themselves  familiar  with  the  strange." 

But  suppose  we  exchange  the  commonplaces  of 
religion  for  the  novelties  of  modern  skepticism,  what 
do  we  gain?  We  leave  a  w^orld  wherein  the  familiar 
is  occasionally  lit  with  the  gleam  of  eternity ;  where 
commonplace  experience  is  glorified  by  personal  re- 
lations to  the  living  and  holy  God;  where  intellectual 
progress  is  sanctified  by  reverence  for  a  Being 
whose  will  and  ways  are  becoming  intelligible,  for 
the  deadly  routine  of  general  laws,  or  the  cold  com- 
panionship of  abstract  principles,  camouflaged  here 
and  there  with  such  vagaries  as  psychical  research: 
which  leaves  the  soul  under  the  malign  spell  of  un- 
known forces,  and  at  the  mercy  of  spook  doctors, 
and  neurotic  adventurers  in  the  domain  of  the  spirit. 


80  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

The  exchange  of  a  prophet's  commonplace  advice, 
for  the  irresponsible  novelties  of  a  spiritualistic 
medium  is  a  very  poor  bargain ;  yet  this  was  done 
by  many  apparently  balanced  minds  when  caught 
unawares  in  the  terrible  storm  of  a  world  war. 

Impressionism  is  responsible  for  the  fact  that  Ger- 
many took  the  world  by  surprise.  We  were  so  oc- 
cupied with  illusions  about  the  progress  of  twentieth 
century  civilization  that  we  could  form  no  reason- 
able estimate  of  what  was  going  on.  Germany's 
collapse  was  due,  in  great  measure,  to  her  failure 
to  reckon  with  the  constant  pressure  of  moral  forces ; 
she  ventured  into  the  domain  of  the  spirit  blindly 
trusting  to  organized  materialism;  and  she  failed 
because  experience,  whether  for  nations  or  in- 
dividuals, is  always  on  the  side  of  truth.  Life  brings 
home  its  meaning  at  the  last;  and  we  shall  do  well, 
in  the  reconstruction  period,  to  give  force  to  this 
tremendous  fact.  The  world  is  in  an  atmosphere  of 
fire,  which  determines  the  reality  of  all  created 
things ;  it  may  for  the  moment  be  ignored  or  for- 
gotten because  it  manifests  itself  in  familiar  ways ; 
but  if  we  are  to  meet  successfully  the  responsibilities 
of  the  present  time  we  must  learn  how  to  make  our- 
selves strange  to  the  familiar,  that  is  to  consider  the 
hidden  significance  of  the  ordinary  processes  of  life, 
and  derive  our  strength  and  encouragement  from 
belief  in  a  God  whose  ways  are  commonplace  only  be- 
cause they  are  constant. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE    DOOM    OF    MATERIAL    EFFICIENCY 

Isaiah  x:  12:  "Wherefore  it  shall  come  to  pass,  that  when 
the  Lord  hath  performed  his  whole  work  upon  Mount  Zion 
and  on  Jerusalem,  I  will  punish  the  fruit  of  the  stout  heart 
of  the  king  of  Assyria,  and  the  glory  of  his  high  looks." 

In  the  last  chapter  we  reviewed  some  of  the  ways  by 
wliich  the  rulers  of  Judah  proposed  to  deal  with  the 
Assja'ian,  should  they  be  so  unfortunate  as  to  fall 
into  his  hands.  Four  measures  were  suggested: 
fight,  pay,  parley,  pray.  Isaiah  rejected  them  on 
the  ground  that  they  did  not  meet  the  situation, 
and  proposed  reliance  upon  the  fundamental  prom- 
ises which  God  had  made  to  the  chosen  people:  God 
had  laid  in  Zion  a  chief  cornerstone,  elect,  tried  and 
precious ;  the  spiritual  destiny  of  the  world  having 
been  entrusted  to  this  nation,  it  was  not  the  purpose 
of  God  to  permit  Assj^ria  to  destroy  its  autonomy 
at  this  time.  But  Judah  must  mend  her  ways  and 
return  unto  the  Lord.  "  Come  back,"  said  the 
prophet,  "  to  the  old  simplicity  of  life  and  faith, 
and  God  will  sustain  you." 

The  rulers  scornfully  rejected  this  advice  on  the 
ground  that  it  was  familiar  and  commonplace ;  they 
denounced  the  prophet  for  treating  them  as  if  they 

SI 


82  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

were  children :  precept  upon  precept,  line  upon  line, 
here  a  little  and  there  a  little,  mere  kindergarten 
talk.  The  prophet  reminded  them  that  a  time  was 
coming  when  God  would  speak  to  them  in  another 
way.  When  they  heard  the  strange  voices  of  the 
Assyrian  host  about  their  city,  then  it  should  be 
to  them :  precept  upon  precept,  line  upon  line ;  they 
should  go,  and  fall  backward,  and  be  taken. 

Such  reasoning  in  the  light  of  subsequent  events 
is  quite  convincing,  but  for  the  moment  it  did  not 
interest  the  rulers  in  Jerusalem,  because  the  danger 
seemed  far  distant.  It  is  true  that  the  Assyrian 
was  slowly  but  surely  advancing;  already  he  had 
overrun  northern  Syria,  taken  Damascus  and  was 
even  then  besieging  Tyre  and  feeling  the  approaches 
to  Samaria;  but  up  there  in  her  remote  mountain 
fastness  Jerusalem  felt  herself  secure. 

Four  years  later  the  situation  had  materially 
changed.  After  a  prolonged  and  terrible  siege 
Samaria  had  fallen.  The  bulk  of  her  population 
was  taken  away  captive  to  Mesopotamia  and  her 
political  autonomy  completely  destro3^ed.  The 
Assyrian  army  intoxicated  with  victory  now  lay 
only  two  days'  march  from  the  borders  of  Judah  and 
a  little  more  than  two  days  from  Jerusalem  itself. 
It  was  a  terrible  awakening  for  the  complacent 
rulers  of  the  city,  and  they  feverishly  began  to  de- 
vise measures  for  meeting  the  crisis. 

The    most    popular    measures    suggested    were    a 


DOOM  OF  MATERIAL  EFFICIENCY      83 

treaty  with  Assyria  based  on  tribute,  and  an  alliance 
with  Egypt.  Some  years  previously,  Ahaz  had 
made  a  treaty  with  Assyria  for  self-protection 
against  his  northern  neighbors,  and,  since  then,  the 
nation  had  been  paying  an  annual  tribute ;  many  said 
that  the  easiest  way  of  avoiding  trouble  was  to  trust 
to  this  agreement.  Assyria  must  keep  her  covenant 
promises,  even  though  it  might  involve  an  increase  in 
the  yearly  bribe.  But  Isaiah  had  called  this  agree- 
ment a  "  covenant  with  death  and  hell,"  Assyria  was 
not  to  be  depended  upon,  and  where  her  interests 
were  involved,  the  most  solemn  treaties  were  but 
"  scraps  of  paper,"  to  be  torn  up  at  her  convenience. 
It  is  clear  that  this  was  the  secret  fear  of  the  rulers, 
for  the  more  popular  policy  advocated  was  an  of- 
fensive alliance  with  Egypt;  and  whatever  military 
campaigns  were  determined,  were  made  on  the  as- 
sumption that  Judah  would  be  supported  by  an 
Egyptian  contingent.  But  of  Egypt  Isaiah  had 
plainly  said :  "  She  is  a  blustering  braggart,  whose 
strength  is  to  sit  still."  The  outstanding  feature 
of  the  situation  was  that  the  rulers  had  no  idea  of 
reliance  upon  God.  The  moral  aspect  of  the  crisis 
made  no  appeal  to  them,  neither  had  the  prophet's 
advice  impressed  them.  They  were  without  adequate 
religious  supports  and  their  mental  state  was  so 
confused  that  they  were  incapable  of  understanding 
or  following  the  only  man  who  could  have  led  them 
out  of  the  difficultv. 


84  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

We  turn  now  to  consider  how  Isaiah  faced  the 
crisis.  All  great  convictions  begin  with  visions : 
first  by  a  flash  of  intuition  a  man  gains  insight  into 
truth,  then  events  develop  intuitions  into  conscious 
and  workable  convictions,  which  in  turn  may  be  used 
to  interpret  a  situation.  This  is  what  we  see  in  the 
notable  tenth  chapter. 

The  source  of  Isaiah's  convictions  was  his 
prophetic  call.  In  the  year  that  king  Uzziah  died 
he  saw  the  Lord,  sitting  upon  a  throne,  and  by  a 
flash  of  insight,  came  to  understand  the  true  sov- 
ereignty of  the  world.  God  alone  was  sovereign, 
because  He  alone  was  holy.  But  holiness,  let  it 
be  remembered,  with  Isaiah  was  never  a  static 
quality,  but  an  intensely  active  and  dynamic  force; 
an  atmosphere  of  fire  burning  ceaselessly  around 
men  and  nations  and  things.  Holiness  being  the 
essence  of  reality,  he  affirmed  the  truth  that  God 
controlled  the  policies  of  nations  and  set  the  bounds 
to  man's  ambitions,  because  God  only  was  real.  On 
this  account  righteousness  either  in  a  people  or  an 
individual  was  the  sole  standard  of  permanence  on 
this  planet.  The  prophet's  criticisms  of  Judah's 
policies  were  based  not  only  on  his  belief  that  they 
were  foolish  and  ineff'ective ;  but  because  he  saw  them 
always  in  relation  to  the  righteous  purposes  of 
God.  All  the  suff'erings  and  hardships  that  should 
result  from  the  Assyrian  war  were  in  Judah's  case 
to  become  disciplines ;  which  while  austere  in  eff'ect, 


DOOM  OF  MATERIAL  EFFICIENCY      85 

were  instinct  with  loving  kindness.  Judah  was  safe, 
because  God  had  committed  to  her  the  religious 
future  of  the  race;  Jerusalem  was  inviolate  at  that 
time,  because  therein  Jehovah  had  laid  the  chief 
cornerstone  of  the  world's  spiritual  hopes. 

But  the  holy  fire  which  was  to  refine  Judah  was 
also  burning  about  Assyria,  and  if  Assyria  were 
wholly  false,  as  Isaiah  believed  she  was,  she  was 
doomed :  "  wherefore  it  shall  come  to  pass,  that  when 
the  Lord  hath  performed  his  whole  work  upon 
Mount  Zion  and  Jerusalem,  I  will  punish  the  fruit 
of  the  stout  heart  of  the  king  of  Assyria,  and  the 
glory  of  his  high  looks."  From  the  highlands  of 
spiritual  vision  the  prophet  calmly  awaited  the  de- 
velopment of  events.  So  long  as  Assyria  was  far 
from  the  borders  of  Judah,  the  danger  seemed  vague 
and  inchoate;  but  now  that  her  armies  were  but 
two  days'  march  from  the  city  the  situation  assumed 
a  terrible  and  concrete  simplicity.  It  was  his 
tremendous  faith  in  God  as  active  holiness  that  gave 
the  prophet  the  courage  to  meet  the  crisis  in  a  truly 
great  way. 

In  a  passage  of  immense  imaginative  force  Isaiah 
showed  how  easy  it  would  be  for  Assyria  to  march  to 
the  walls  of  Jerusalem.  He  takes  his  stand  on  his 
watch  tower  and  beholds  in  vision,  the  advance  of 
the  invading  foe,  and  forecasts  the  probable  route 
of  the  march.  Palestine  was  a  land  of  peculiar 
topography;  of  deep  defiles  and  hills,  broken  at  the 


86  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

center  by  a  great  range  of  mountains.  Jerusalem 
was  situated  on  the  top  of  the  central  range,  and 
could  be  approached  only  through  a  series  of  ascend- 
ing pathways,  over  which  it  was  difficult  to  carry 
heavy  baggage,  and  almost  impossible  to  manipulate 
horses  and  chariots.  On  this  account  an  attack 
upon  it  would  always  be  hazardous  and  chiefly  the 
work  of  foot  soldiers.  But  the  Assyrian  was  master 
of  a  new  sort  of  warfare,  and  had  learned  from 
experience  in  this  country,  how  to  overcome  difficul- 
ties, which  in  the  border  wars  of  past  •  times,  had 
been  Jerusalem's  chief  protection.  Thus  the  holy 
city  had  lost  most  of  its  natural  defenses  and  lay 
at  the  mercy  of  the  invading  foe.  The  route  lay 
through  deep  defiles,  flanked  here  and  there  by  little 
towns ;  while  above  them  on  the  heights  were  watch 
towers  from  which  sentinels  looked  out  over  the 
rolling  country  and  gave  warning  of  the  enemy's 
approach. 

In  a  dramatic  imaginary  account  the  prophet  de- 
picts the  probable  route  of  march,  and  the  eff^ect 
it  would  have  on  the  exposed  countryside.  You 
see  the  Assyrian,  flushed  with  victory,  driving  his 
army  up  through  the  deep  gorges,  now  and  then 
becoming  visible  as  he  reaches  some  well  known  pass. 
Cowering  like  birds  before  the  fowler  are  the  little 
villages,  the  people  panic  stricken  and, fleeing  with 
their  belongings  to  places  of  safety.  He  lays  up 
in    one   place   his   heavy   baggage    and    moves    with 


DOOM  OF  MATERIAL  EFFICIENCY      87 

greater  swiftness  until  he  is  seen  by  the  watchers 
on  the  heights,  whose  fearful  cries  now"  fill  the  land. 
At  last  he  is  at  Nob,  three  miles  distant  from  the 
holy  city,  and  defiantly  waves  his  hand  at  Zion, 
virgin  daughter  of  God.  Do  not  miss  the  force  of 
this,  for  here  Isaiah  sees  no  defending  army,  no 
Egyptian  hosts  to  keep  the  promises  made  and 
covenanted ;  no  respect  for  treaties  on  the  part  of 
the  invader.  Humanly  speaking,  there  was  nothing 
in  the  visible  aspect  of  the  case  to  prevent  Assyria 
from  doing  this  very  thing.  As  a  matter  of  fact 
this  particular  army  did  not  invade  Judah ;  neither 
did  Sennacherib's  hosts  follow  this  route ;  but  so 
far  as  Judah  is  concerned  there  was  no  reason  why 
Assyria  should  not  have  invested  her  capital  city 
also ;  for  it  was  not  Judah's  military  strength,  nor 
her  Egyptian  alliance,  but  political  disturbances  at 
home  that  prevented  Sargon  from  finishing  the  con- 
quest of  the  land  after  the  fall  of  Samaria. 

But  the  point  of  greater  consequence  is  that 
events  fully  justified  the  prophet,  for  when  Jeru- 
salem finally  faced  a  siege,  things  turned  out  pre- 
cisely as  he  had  predicted.  The  soldiers,  especially 
the  Arabian  mercenaries,  threw  down  their  weapons 
and  fled  the  field ;  the  diplomats  and  foreign  am- 
bassadors flung  aside  their  ofl^cial  robes  lest  they 
be  taken  and  slain,  while  the  city  streets  were  filled 
with  frenzied  crowds  that  could  think  of  nothing 
better    to    do    than    to    give    themselves    up    to    de- 


88  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

bauchery  and  despair.  The  remarkable  feature  of 
these  terrible  times  was  the  courage  and  calmness 
of  the  man  of  God;  he  is  a  striking  example  of  his 
own  saying :  "  He  that  believeth  shall  not  make 
haste." 

This  was  the  impending  event  —  a  possible  siege 
of  Jerusalem  —  that  developed  the  prophet's  in- 
tuition of  God's  active  holiness  into  a  tremendous 
principle  for  the  interpretation  of  history.  Holi- 
ness became  the  touchstone  of  reality,  and  with  it 
he  tested  out  the  purposes  of  men  and  nations  be- 
fore the  judgment  seat  of  God. 

We  shall  understand  this  more  clearly  if  we  con- 
sider Assyria's  view  of  the  case.  A  nation's  ambi- 
tions are  greatly  influenced  by  its  experience  in  war. 
If  reverses  prevail  over  successes  a  nation  will  be- 
come less  egoistic  and  self-reliant;  under  the  severe 
discipline  of  adversity  it  frequently  modifies  its 
ambitions ;  but  if  it  meet  with  a  series  of  unbroken 
successes,  if  nothing  check  its  headlong  course  it 
will  become  selfish,  arrogant  and  reliant  until  it 
becomes  a  swollen,  inflated  thing.  Now  this  was 
what  happened  to  Assyria.  She  began  her  west- 
ward thrust  for  the  purpose  of  subjugating  Egypt; 
but  at  the  outset  this  was  a  vague,  inchoate  dream, 
without  form  or  content.  After  twenty  years, 
however,  of  successful  campaigning  Assyria  had  a 
great  record  to  her  credit,  and  her  self-confidence 
grew   apace.     "  It  is   now  in  her  heart,"   says   the 


DOOM  OF  MATERIAL  EFFICIENCY      89 

prophet,  "  to  destroy  and  cut  off  nations  not  a  few." 
The  purpose  of  the  ruthless  invader  has  changed 
from  a  simple  conquest  of  nations  into  a  determina- 
tion to  destroy  whole  peoples.  Already  Meso- 
potamia was  filling  up  with  captives  and  spoil  of 
war.  Her  pride  was  tremendous,  for  she  said  in 
her  heart:  "  Are  not  my  princes,  all  of  them  kings? 
Is  not  Calno  as  Carchemish?  is  not  Hamath  as 
Arpad?  is  not  Samaria  as  Damascus?  As  my  hand 
hath  found  the  kingdoms  of  the  idols  whose  graven 
images  did  excel  them  of  Jerusalem  and  Samaria ; 
shall  I  not  as  I  have  done  unto  Samaria  and  her 
idols,  do  so  to  Jerusalem  and  her  idols  ?  "  Well,  why 
not?  She  could  reckon  her  successes  in  terms  of 
treasure,  captives,  and  territory  —  in  the  prestige 
of  a  terrible  name  —  and  it  was  an  added  element  in 
her  satisfaction  to  believe  that  in  subduing  peoples, 
she  also  conquered  their  gods.  All  this  is  fully  in 
accord  with  the  boastful  inscriptions  found  on  As- 
syrian monuments  of  the  period.  Sennacherib 
speaks  of  shutting  up  Hezekiah  in  Jerusalem  as  a 
bird  in  a  cage ;  he  boasts  of  overpowering  him  by 
the  might  of  his  magnificence ;  and  this  is  a  demon- 
stration of  the  truth  that  the  nation  is  basing  its 
hopes  of  permanence  and  importance,  upon  brute 
force  and  material  efficiency,  and  nothing  else. 

So  far  as  I  know,  no  nation  since  those  times 
has  so  strikingly  followed  the  Assyrian  model,  or 
believed  in  the  Assyrian  creed  of  material  efficiency 


90  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

as  autocratic  Germany.  Aware  as  we  are  of  the 
collapse  of  both  nations  before  the  power  of  spiritual 
reality,  it  were  easy  to  confess  the  futility  of  such 
a  creed;  but  to  the  nations  standing  immediately 
in  front  of  this  tremendous  force,  listening  to  these 
boastings  and  beholding  the  awful  effects  of  these 
arrogant  policies  on  weaker  peoples  the  situation 
would  have  another  aspect.  There  is  a  terrible 
plausibility  about  visible  successes,  for  outwardly 
Assyria  had  done  all  that  she  claimed  to  have  done. 
She  could  not  be  beaten  in  the  field,  and  the  whole 
world  knew  it.  She  had  gained  results ;  her  gains 
were  actual  and  visible,  but  were  they  real?  Could 
she  hold  on  to  them,  when  she  came  in  touch  with 
moral  reality?  It  was  difficult  for  the  oppressed 
and  spiritually  destitute  nations  that  lay  directly 
in  her  path  to  think  otherwise.  As  her  policies 
rapidly  took  form  it  was  difficult  indeed  for  the 
people  of  Judah  to  resist  raising  the  question :  Was 
Jehovah  the  true  sovereign  of  the  world?  Was  He 
real?  and  did  He  control  events?  If  so  what  was 
the  reason  for  delay  in  punishing  the  wicked  and 
vindicating  the  righteous?  Thus  men  felt  during 
the  great  war  when  they  saw  Germany  standing 
with  ensanguined  feet  upon  the  fairest  lands  of 
Europe.  They  asked  a  question  that  must  be 
answered :  Is  righteousness  in  control  of  the  world  ; 
can  a  spiritual  view  of  life's  values  be  maintained 
in  face  of  material  successes? 


DOOM  OF  MATERIAL  EFFICIENCY     91 

Such  questions  are  fully  answered,  neither  by  the 
conflict  of  visible  forces,  nor  by  the  arrangements 
of  statesmen  and  diplomats.  What  is  required  for 
the  adequate  understanding  of  such  problems  is  to 
match  visible  forces  with  invisible ;  to  bring  material 
actuality,  measured  by  captives,  spoil  and  terri- 
tory into  contact  with  moral  reality  through  the 
medium  of  a  tremendous  truth  —  which  Judah  had 
at  first  despised  and  then  forgotten  —  and  this 
truth  could  not  appear  efl'ectively  among  visible 
events  until  it  had  been  born  in  the  human  heart. 
In  other  words  it  must  first  develop  in  human  con- 
sciousness as  a  mighty  faith  before  it  can  become 
the  assessor  of  events  on  the  field  of  history.  Judah 
at  present,  was  without  religious  supports ;  she  did 
not  understand  her  experience  because  she  knew 
nothing  of  spiritual  realit}^ ;  but  Isaiah  did  know  — 
that  is  the  significance  of  this  great  chapter. 

We  have  become  so  familiar  with  the  prophet's 
conception  of  God  that  we  need  only  note  how  he 
applied  it  to  the  present  situation.  His  funda- 
mental doctrine  of  God's  active  holiness  enables  us 
to  understand  what  he  means  by  reality.  Reality 
was  what  could  live  in  the  fire.  If  there  were  but  a 
little  of  this  in  a  nation  the  hardships  it  might  ex- 
perience would  develop  it  into  more  harmonious  rela- 
tions with  the  supreme  reality  which  conditioned  all 
life;  if  on  the  contrary  the  whole  nation  were  false, 
then  it  was  doomed.     Military  reverses  or  social  dis- 


92  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

orders  might  determine  the  external  aspect  of  the 
disaster,  but  its  essence  would  be  fixed  by  its  inner 
unsoundness;  it  would  perish  because  it  could  not 
survive  the  ordeal  by  fire.  Everybody  was  much 
occupied  at  this  time  with  actual  events;  with  visi- 
bilities of  one  sort  and  another;  and  to  the  natural 
mind  the  balance  was  greatly  in  favor  of  Assyria; 
but  according  to  the  inspired  vision  of  Isaiah  reality 
would  be  what  remained  when  the  fires  of  God's 
righteous  judgment  passed  over  it. 

From  this  fundamental  doctrine  Isaiah  developed 
two  principles  which  underly  his  teaching  about 
providence.  First  he  affirmed  that  God  alone  must 
control  events  simply  because  He  was  real;  He 
directs  the  policies  of  nations  in  accord  with  His 
own  will.  The  prophet  called  Assyria  God's  ax. 
Now  an  ax  is  a  thing,  and  remains  a  thing  to  the 
end;  its  use  is  always  determined  by  the  intelligence 
that  wields  it.  Could  anything  more  properly 
classify  that  proud  complex  of  atheistic  arrogance 
and  brute  force  making  up  Assyria  than  to  describe 
her  as  God's  thing?  Secondly,  the  prophet  taught 
that  God's  providence  has  two  purposes :  one  of 
judgment,  the  other  of  moral  discipline.  He  be- 
lieved that  the  Assyrian  war  was  a  conflict  between 
organized  selfishness  and  moral  principle.  So  soon 
as  God  had  finished  with  Assyria,  He  would  punish 
her  for  her  wickedness ;  on  the  other  hand  while  the 
prophet  knew   that  the  moral  principle   which  was 


DOOM  OF  MATERIAL  EFFICIENCY      93 

slowly  but  surely  bringing  Assyria  to  the  judg- 
ment seat  did  not  reside  in  Judah,  he  believed  that 
the  spiritual  responsibilities  which  had  been  placed 
on  the  chosen  people  were  the  guarantee  of  their 
survival.  God  had  chosen  Judah  for  the  spiritual 
advantage  of  the  future.  On  this  account  he  could 
but  regard  the  sufferings  of  the  Assyrian  campaign 
in  the  light  of  disciplinary  mercies ;  and  see  in  the 
terrible  actualities  of  the  time  evidences  of  loving 
kindness.  The  hardships  were  real  of  course ;  they 
had  to  be  if  discipline  was  to  be  effective.  They 
were,  moreover,  justified  because  Judah  was  ignorant 
of  her  spiritual  responsibilities.  She  still  clung  to 
the  old  tribal  idea  of  a  deity  that  could  be  placated 
with  animal  sacrifices,  pleased  with  ornate  cere- 
monies, and  cajoled  and  befooled  at  will.  She  must 
pass  through  the  fires  of  God  in  order  to  know  His 
nature  and  power ;  she  must  be  made  to  realize  the 
Divine  sovereignty  by  a  fresh  apprehension  of  holi- 
ness and  grace.  What  Isaiah  had  gained  in  knowl- 
edge of  God  from  his  prophetic  call,  and  matured 
into  a  spiritually  uplifting  conviction  through  years 
of  loneliness  and  isolation,  Judah  must  experience 
through  a  refining  and  purging  discipline. 

Such  convictions  enabled  the  prophet,  in  the 
hour  of  her  greatest  triumphs,  to  predict  the  fall 
of  Assyria ;  upon  them  he  based  his  faith  that  As- 
syria was  not  only  limited  in  the  scope  of  her  am- 
bitions, but  also  doomed  to  certain  destruction  be- 


94  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

cause  she  was  in  conflict  with  the  righteousness  of 
God. 

In  this  notable  utterance  the  prophet  pronounced 
the  failure  of  every  form  of  material  efficiency  when- 
ever it  comes  into  conflict  with  moral  reality.  Effi- 
ciency is  mere  deadness  in  the  hands  of  God ;  like  the 
mole  it  works  blindly  without  any  idea  of  its  goal; 
but  moral  reality  —  that  which  can  live  in  the  tre- 
mendous fires  which  burn  around  the  earth  —  is 
vital,  self-conscious  and  self-determining  because  it 
is  inspired  by  communion  with  the  living  God. 

Such  faith  as  this  has  an  important  bearing  on 
the  present  world  situation,  for  one  of  our  clearest 
convictions  is  that  the  great  war  was  a  trial  of 
strength  between  material  efficiency  and  moral  real- 
ity; the  same  issues  were  at  stake  and  the  inevitable 
result  has  been  accomplished. 

Germany  in  most  aspects  of  her  life,  especially  in 
her  military  policy  and  political  ambitions  has  been 
the  legitimate  successor  in  the  modern  world  of 
ancient  Assyria.  Her  faith  in  destiny  was  founded 
on  organized  force,  thinly  disguised  by  a  series  of 
mistaken  political  and  religious  ideals ;  her  idealism 
in  fact  was  ever  the  bondservant  of  her  material- 
ism. She  stood  in  our  day  in  place  of  Assyria, 
and  performed  the  same  disciplinary  service  for 
modern  peoples  that  Assyria  rendered  to  the  nations 
of  Palestine. 

Great  outbreaks  like  the  war  may  be  occasioned 


DOOM  OF  MATERIAL  EFFICIENCY      95 

by  events,  but  they  are  caused  by  the  explosive 
force  of  ideas  which  grow  up  within  the  traditions  of 
a  nation.  The  political  philosophy  of  autocratic 
Germany  was  based  on  a  very  simple  principle, 
namely  that  the  individual  exists  solely  for  the  well 
being  of  the  state.  From  this  naturally  developed 
such  ideas  as  that  the  end  of  the  state  is  power ; 
that  weakness  in  the  state  is  the  unpardonable  sin, 
in  Treitschke's  phrase  "  the  sin  against  the  Holy 
Ghost  of  politics."  It  was  a  system  of  pure  egoism ; 
the  people  of  that  country  were  taught  to  believe 
tb.at  implicit  and  unreasoning  obedience  of  the  state 
is  the  highest  duty  of  the  subject;  that  war  is  the 
normal  expression  of  the  state's  vitality,  and  that 
small  states  by  reason  of  their  weakness  have  no 
right  to  exist. 

Germany's  confidence  in  her  political  philosophy 
w^as  sustained  by  two  things :  obvious  material  effi- 
ciency and  a  false  theory  of  divine  providence,  and 
both  conceptions  were  encouraged  and  at  the  same 
time  falsified  by  her  military  successes.  As  noticed 
above  the  aims  of  a  nation  will  be  determined  in 
large  measure  by  its  history  and  traditions ;  and  the 
political  traditions  of  the  Teutonic  peoples  seem  to 
have  predestined  them  to  tread  in  the  dangerous 
path  of  world  dominion,  until  they  confronted  the 
righteous  indignation  of  the  civilized  world. 

The  phrase,  "  Germany  over  all  "  expressed  at  the 
outset    of   the   war   a   vague   and   inchoate   dream; 


96  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

but  early  military  successes  served  to  enlarge  it, 
and  give  it  a  concrete  meaning,  until  she  stood  in 
the  same  relation  to  modern  peoples  as  Assyria  did 
towards  the  nations  in  Palestine.  She  no  longer 
made  war  on  particular  nations  but  upon  whole 
peoples ;  until  her  aim  was  to  destroy  the  autonomy 
and  influence  of  Latin  and  Anglo-Saxon  civilization. 
The  issue  between  the  contending  forces  was  sharp- 
ened to  the  simplest  terms.  It  was  nothing  less  than 
this :  Which  civilization  was  to  dominate  the  world? 
Was  it  to  be  one  based  upon  the  machine  or  upon 
the  mind.f^  Was  organized  and  enlightened  self- 
interest  or  moral  reality  to  become  the  goal  of  the 
race.?  And  this  was  precisely  the  same  issue  at 
stake  on  the  hills  of  Palestine  in  the  eighth  century 
before  Christ. 

Germany  supported  her  political  ambitions  by  a 
false  religious  philosophy.  The  root  principle  of 
this,  the  most  pernicious  form  of  pragmatism,  was 
that  God  was  obliged  to  follow  the  lines  of  a  nation's 
development.  Germany  took  it  for  granted  that  a 
nation's  destiny  being  determined  by  its  successful 
exploitation  of  other  peoples,  fixed  unalterably  the 
ways  of  providence;  God  must  always  be  on  the  side 
of  the  strongest  nation,  for  was  not  the  survival  of 
the  fittest  one  of  the  laws  of  nature?  And  if  of 
nature,  why  not  also  of  nations  ?  That  God  was  the 
supporter  of  the  successful  nation  has  been  one  of 
Germany's  fixed  obsessions;  in  fact  the  morality  of 


DOOM  OF  MATERIAL  EFFICIENCY     97 

a  nation  was  always  determined  by  its  successes. 
If  a  nation  could  conquer  other  nations,  exploit 
peoples  and  take  territory,  this  demonstrated  the 
truth  that  God  was  with  her.  In  precisely  the  same 
fashion  Assyria  reasoned :  "  Is  not  Calno  as  Car- 
ohemish?  is  not  Hamath  as  Arpad?  is  not  Samaria 
as  Damascus?  As  my  hand  hath  found  the  king- 
doms of  the  idols,  whose  graven  images  did  excel 
them  of  Jerusalem  and  Samaria,  shall  I  not  as  I 
have  done  unto  Samaria  and  her  idols,  so  do  to 
Jerusalem  and  her  idols?  "  As  Assyria,  encouraged 
by  her  military  successes  felt  that  she  could  afford 
to  ignore  the  moral  principles  of  other  nations,  so 
Germany  took  the  position  that  she  could  discard 
and  offend  against  the  standards  of  political  mor- 
ality which  hitherto  had  characterized  civilized  peo- 
ples ;  and  that  too  not  only  because  she  believed 
herself  successful  in  the  field,  but  also  because  she 
believed  that  her  successes  were  signs  of  Divine 
favor.  "  Onward  with  God,"  was  the  Kaiser's  cry ; 
but  there  was  nothing  in  this  German  god  that  re- 
sembled the  God  and  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ ;  but  rather  something  like  an  old  pagan 
deity  with  a  hammer  in  his  hand.  The  misguided 
people  believed  profoundly  in  this  peculiar  product 
of  Germanic  theological  genius,  and  therein  lay  their 
doom. 

The   hostile   attitude   towards   Christianity   taken 
by  such  philosophers  as  Nietzsche  was  due  in  great 


98  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

measure  to  the  fact  that  Christianity  is  favorable 
to  democracy ;  the  fierce  denunciation  of  the  doc- 
trine of  survival  of  the  unfit,  whom  he  contemptu- 
ously called  the  "  botched  of  mankind,"  through  re- 
deeming love,  and  the  defiant  assertion  that  Chris- 
tianity must  be  destroyed  in  order  that  democracy 
might  fail  are  illustrations  of  a  machine  civilization 
coming  into  deadly  conflict  with  a  civilization 
founded  on  the  mind.  After  all  the  most  important 
issue  that  has  been  decided  by  the  war  is  that  the 
society  of  the  future  shall  rest  not  on  matter  but  on 
mind,  not  on  material  efficiency  but  on  moral  reality. 
The  stunting  effect  of  this  egoistic  system  on  the 
masses  of  the  people  is  sufficient  to  discredit  it. 
In  military  text  books  designed  for  the  training 
of  officers,  careful  instructions  are  given  for  "  smash- 
ing the  spiritual  life  of  the  common  soldier."  He 
must  be  trained  in  a  different  code  of  morals  from 
that  to  which  as  a  private  subject,  he  has  been 
accustomed.  When  he  enlists  he  becomes  a  unit  in 
a  machine;  he  must  learn  to  do  things  that  are  re- 
volting to  human  nature,  that  offend  the  conscience 
and  is  justified  in  doing  them  because  the  state, 
a  part  of  which  organization  he  is,  can  do  no  wrong. 
This  is  efficiency  at  its  maximum  power  —  a  system 
that  turns  man  into  a  thing,  because  it  is  designed 
to  take  out  of  the  individual  all  autonomous 
thought  and  feeling  such  as  sympathy  for  the  dis- 
tressed, pity  for  the  weak,  and  kindness  toward  the 


DOOM  OF  MATERIAL  EFFICIENCY      99 

dependent.  It  makes  might  the  sole  test  of  morals, 
and  weakness  the  only  sin ;  it  turns  a  man  into  a 
thing  of  brawn  and  callousness  and  sends  him  out  on 
a  mission  of  frightfulness.  This  killing  of  babies, 
violation  of  helpless  women,  bombing  of  hospitals, 
destruction  of  churches,  and  ruthless  disregard  of 
the  sacred  rights  of  mankind,  what  has  this  been 
but  a  riotous  outbreak  of  depersonalized  things, 
manipulated  by  the  powers  of  darkness  in  high 
places  ? 

The  policy  of  turning  men  into  things  has  had  a 
twofold  effect  on  the  German  character.  In  the 
first  place  it  destroyed  the  personal  autonomy  of 
the  individual,  and  this,  in  my  judgment,  is  the 
greatest  of  crimes. 

"  Think,  I  adjure  you,  what  it  is  to  slay 
The  reverence  living  in  the  minds  of  men." 

For  if  it  be  a  more  culpable  thing  to  destroy  the 
sanity  of  the  mind  than  to  injure  the  body,  what 
can  be  said  of  a  political  system  that  destroys  the 
moral  autonomy  of  the  soul!  It  is  a  terrible  thing 
we  have  seen,  my  masters,  this  destruction  of  the 
human  personality ;  and  the  hour  of  Germany's  doom 
struck  when  those  things  she  had  made  of  her  sub- 
jects were  by  an  imperious  necessity  made  to  think; 
and  the  product  of  such  thinking  we  now  see,  when  a 
whole  people,  not  with  unrestrained  passion,  but 
with  keen  intelligence  sustained  by  the  memory  of  an 


100  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

age-long  wrong,  have  turned  upon  the  iniquitous 
system  and  consigned  it  to  deserved  oblivion.  It 
means  that  no  government  can  exist,  or  will  be  per- 
mitted to  exist,  in  the  future  that  interferes  with  the 
normal  development  of  the  human  personality. 

The  second  consequence  of  the  system  was  to 
make  cowards  of  men.  This  is  shown  by  the  fact 
that  Germany  believed  she  could  break  the  morale 
of  the  Allies  by  a  policy  of  frightfulness ;  and  faith 
in  this  method  was  sustained  by  the  feeling  that  such 
a  policy  would  be  quite  successful  with  her  people; 
and  was  not  fear  of  invasion  a  potent  reason  why 
she  was  so  eager  to  bring  the  struggle  to  a  close, 
even  when  she  knew  that  she  could  expect  nothing 
but  drastic  terms  from  her  justly  indignant  oppo- 
nents ? 

Efficiency  was  doomed,  not  only  because  it  was 
in  conflict  with  moral  reality,  but  also  because  it 
violated  the  sacred  rights  of  human  personality. 
The  civilization  that  shall  issue  from  the  war  will 
be  based  upon  the  mind;  it  will  give  the  fullest 
possible  opportunities  to  the  individual;  and  if  it 
can  adjust  itself  to  the  spiritual  implications  of  the 
great  struggle,  it  will  through  its  very  hardships 
and  losses  have  attained  to  finer  quality;  and  be 
better  fitted  to  live  in  the  tremendous  fires  of  holi- 
ness which  are  burning  round  this  planet,  and  which 
in  the  end  must  determine  for  all  nations  and  peoples 
the  nature  of  reality. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE    REPOSE    OF    A    SETTLED    FAITH 

Isaiah  xxviii:16;  xxx:15:  "Thus  saith  the  Lord  God,  Be- 
hold I  lay  in  Zion  for  a  foundation  a  stone,  a  tried  stone,  a 
precious  cornerstone,  of  sure  foundation:  he  that  believeth  shall 
not  make  haste.  ...  In  returning  and  rest  shall  ye  be  saved; 
in  quietness  and  in  confidence  shall  be  your  strength." 

In  the  last  chapter  we  saw  how  Isaiah  met  the  crisis 
which  arose  in  Judah  through  the  fall  of  Samaria. 
Humanly  speaking,  there  was  no  reason  why  Sargon 
should  not  have  taken  Jerusalem  also ;  but  domestic 
troubles  called  him  home,  and  the  siege  was  post- 
poned for  twenty  years. 

Before  taking  up  the  interesting  series  of  prophe- 
cies concerned  with  the  deliverance  of  Jerusalem, 
we  must  pay  some  attention  to  Isaiah's  method  of 
dealing  with  the  godly  people  in  Judah.  So  far  we 
have  been  taken  up  with  the  destructive  phase  of  the 
story :  the  successful  advance  of  Assyria  through 
Palestine ;  the  ineffective  policies  of  the  rulers  to 
check  it;  and  the  disordered  social  life  of  the  peo- 
ple. We  have  touched  but  lightl}^  upon  the  con- 
structive aspect  of  the  story.  Now  the  destructive 
forces   of  life   are   usually   the   noisy   forces,   which 

101 


102  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

seems  to  justify  Carlyle's  remark  that  history  "  is 
not  the  record  of  the  doings,  but  of  the  misdoings 
of  men."  Human  nature  is  more  interested  in  de- 
struction than  in  construction,  for  it  is  easier  to  pull 
down  than  to  build  up ;  and  while  our  study  so  far 
has  satisfied  this  Adamic  instinct,  still  a  too  pro- 
longed reflection  on  the  destructive  phases  of  the 
time  is  apt  to  leave  one  discouraged.  It  raises  the 
question:  Were  all  the  people  of  Judah  in  this  evil 
case?  Were  there  no  devout  and  holy  folk  there, 
who  while  suffering  with  the  guilty,  had  no  word  of 
consolation  or  of  encouragement  from  the  great 
prophet  .P  We  turn  to  this  more  attractive  side  of 
the  story  in  this  chapter. 

Isaiah  had  a  band  of  disciples,  to  which  in  appeal- 
ing asides  and  little  artless  remarks  as  he  goes 
along,  he  gave  most  helpful  messages.  Good  people 
can  always  be  found  in  Zion,  since  God  never  leaves 
Himself  without  witness ;  and  it  was  on  account  of 
the  godly  element  in  Judah  that  we  have  some  of  the 
most  beautiful  and  important  teachings  of  the 
prophet. 

Let  us  for  a  moment  recall  the  three  convictions  of 
Isaiah,  which  determined  the  character  of  his  message 
and  the  consistency  of  his  predictions  throughout 
that  terrible  time.  First  he  fully  understood  the 
nature  of  the  Assyrian  advance.  Long  before  the 
politicians  realized  what  was  coming  he  saw  in 
vision  the  desolation  of  the  land.     He  held  no  illu- 


REPOSE  OF  A  SETTLED  FAITH      103 

sions  concerning  the  power  or  intentions  of  that 
ruthless  foe ;  she  was  well  nigh  irresistible,  and  her 
campaigns  would  work  havoc  in  the  whole  region 
of  Palestine.  Secondly,  he  as  fully  comprehended 
the  incapacity  of  the  nations  called  upon  to  dis- 
pute the  sovereignty  of  the  land  with  the  invader. 
The}^  were  "  stumps  of  smoking  fire-brands  " 
without  diplomatic  or  military  leadership,  devoid 
of  faith  in  God  and  entirely  at  the  mercy  of  im- 
pressionists who  wanted  to  follow  the  easiest  way. 
None  of  their  policies  were  adequate,  for  "  the 
bed  was  shorter  than  that  a  man  could  stretch  him- 
self on  it,  and  the  covering  narrower  than  that  he 
could  wrap  himself  in  it."  The  most  dangerous 
polic}^  of  all  —  that  of  alliance  with  Egypt,  the 
blustering  braggart  whose  strength  was  to  sit  still 
—  was  growing  in  popularity  and  destined  to  lead 
Judah  into  a  trap,  from  which  the  mercy  of  God 
alone  could  deliver  her.  Isaiah  knew  perfectly  well 
what  would  ha])pen  as  soon  as  Ass^^ria  invested  the 
capital.  The  nation  would  break  under  the  strain, 
the  people  lose  heart,  and  the  situation  would  be- 
come intolerable.  There  were  others  in  Zion  that 
saw  this,  and  they  were  among  the  best  people 
of  the  land ;  and  as  Isaiah's  ministry  grew  in  im- 
portance he  devoted  increasing  attention  to  this 
class ;  and  opposed  to  the  hopeless  aspect  of  the 
case  a  third  great  conviction,  that  Jerusalem  was 
inviolate  at  that  time.     There  was  a  reason  why  God 


104  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

was  not  ready  to  abandon  her  to  her  enemies.  The 
times  were  serious ;  the  nation  was  to  be  sifted  as 
v/heat;  but  all  through  destruction  Isaiah  saw  con- 
struction at  work.  The  great  fire  of  holiness  was 
already  consuming  unreality;  but  the  fire  that  was 
to  destroy  Assyria  would  eventually  reveal  in  Zion 
an  indestructible  element.  The  godly  would  come 
out  of  it  refined  like  gold.  The  great  prophet  does 
not  take  a  small  view  of  spiritual  results.  He  calls 
the  godly  element  in  Zion  a  remnant,  but  it  is  a 
word  of  quality,  it  stands  for  God's  finest  product; 
and  in  all  his  passionate  denunciations  of  the  pre- 
vailing follies  of  the  time  he  never  permits  himself 
to  forget  the  needs  of  this  holy  and  believing  people. 
At  this  stage  he  could  not  deliver  all  of  his  message. 
Not  until  the  actual  trial  and  deliverance,  twenty 
years  later,  could  he  open  his  mind  without  reserve; 
but  as  the  Assyrian  with  relentless  precision  ad- 
vanced through  the  land ;  as  one  after  another  of  the 
popular  measures  failed  to  avert  the  crisis,  the 
prophet  found  occasion  to  speak  home  to  the  heart 
of  the  believing  remnant.  His  message  is  essentially 
taken  up  with  the  present  inviolability  of  Jerusalem, 
and  the  advent,  be  it  soon  or  late  of  a  great  spiritual 
leader.  His  Messianic  prophecies  were  developed  in 
connection  with  the  peculiar  needs  of  the  spiritual 
element.  We  shall  have  occasion  to  consider  them 
in  a  subsequent  chapter ;  here  we  are  concerned  with 
the  first  of  the  great  conceptions. 


REPOSE  OF  A  SETTLED  FAITH      105 

Isaiah  had  a  reason  for  believing  that  God  would 
not  permit  Assyria  to  destroy  Jerusalem  at  this 
time.  It  was  the  dwelling  place  of  the  Holy  One; 
it  was  the  home  of  the  spiritually  alert;  the  time 
had  not  yet  come  to  lead  them  forth  on  that  greater 
adventure  known  as  the  Bab^^onian  captivity ;  still 
the  devout  people  were  well  aware  of  the  possibility 
of  dispersion.  Was  not  Samaria  even  then  desolate? 
Were  not  the  people  of  Northern  Israel  scattered 
abroad  in  Mesopotamia?  Should  this  happen  to 
them  what  would  become  of  their  spiritual  hopes  ? 

Isaiah  met  this  legitimate  demand  in  a  truly  great 
way.  In  advance  of  events,  and  in  face  of  a  hope- 
less outlook  he  proclaimed  the  inviolability  of  the 
holy  city  with  a  confidence  born  of  a  faith  whose 
spiritual  passion  was  sustained  at  all  points  by  pro- 
found and  reasonable  conviction.  God  had  laid  in 
Zion,  a  chief  cornerstone,  elect,  tried,  and  precious. 
In  spite  of  her  unworthiness  Judah  was  the  chosen 
of  the  Almighty,  elect  unto  a  certain  mission, 
and  the  spiritual  hopes  of  the  world  depended  upon 
her  continuance  as  an  independent  nation.  Assyria, 
ambitious  for  world  dominion ;  Phoenicia  whose 
sordid  imagination  embraced  the  commercial  oppor- 
tunities of  the  sea ;  and  Egypt,  dreaming  on  her  hot 
Nile  sands  had  been  passed  over;  and  Divine  provi- 
dence had  selected  this  insignificant  remnant  of  a 
slave  people  to  deliver  the  world  from  spiritual  bond- 
age. 


106  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

It  was  Germany's  habit,  during  the  war,  to  justify 
her  ruthless  disregard  of  the  rights  of  weaker  peo- 
ples on  the  ground  that  the  world  had  gained  little 
or  nothing  from  the  influence  of  small  nations.  This 
however  is  contrary  to  fact.  That  rare  culture 
which  like  a  volatile  essence  has  spread  its  sweet- 
ness over  the  earth ;  that  conception  of  ordered 
liberty  which  is  the  foundation  of  modern  democra- 
cies ;  and  the  religion  that  has  created  and  sustained 
the  altruistic  purposes  of  enlightened  civilization  in 
the  greatest  of  moral  struggles  —  all  came  from 
small  nations ;  while  those  huge  masses  of  conceit, 
arrogance  and  egoism  known  as  mighty  empires,  are 
now  but  piles  of  archeological  debris,  the  study 
of  whose  dusty  records  affords  employment  for 
sleepy  old  gentlemen,  who  dream  away  their  lives 
in  the  cloistered  seclusion  of  the  university 
campus. 

The  inviolability  of  Jerusalem  was  based  upon  the 
religious  destiny  of  Judah.  The  other  side  of  this 
great  affirmation  was  the  Divine  intention  of  check- 
ing and  controlling  Assyrian  ambition.  Somewhere, 
and  somehow,  he  does  not  specify,  God  would  stop 
the  advancing  hosts.  "  He  will  punish  the  fruit  of 
the  stout  heart  of  the  king  of  Assyria  and  the  glory 
of  his  high  looks."  On  this  ground  Isaiah  made 
his  great  appeal  to  the  godly  remnant.  Let  them 
trust  in  the  fact ;  let  them  not  be  dismayed  because 
their  leaders  had  no  policy ;  the  situation  was  not 


REPOSE  OF  A  SETTLED  FAITH       107 

in  their  hands,  but  in  God's,  and  sooner  or  later  He 
would  vindicate  them. 

It  was  an  unstable  time.  The  feverish  prepara- 
tions, foolish  arrangements  and  abortive  remedies 
devised  by  the  rulers  would  avail  nothing.  Judah 
was  like  a  silly  dove,  fussed  and  excited;  in  a  word, 
full  of  haste  and  waste;  but  said  the  prophet: 
he  that  believeth  shall  not  make  haste ;  he  shall  never 
be  in  a  hurry.  Over  and  over  again  he  rings  the 
changes  on  the  great  words :  in  returning  from  all 
these  foolish  measures  and  in  rest  upon  the  promises 
of  the  eternal  God  shall  ye  be  safe ;  in  quietness  and 
in  confidence  shall  be  your  strength.  The  godly  are 
urged  not  to  be  dismayed  by  the  popular  clamor. 
"  Fear  not  their  fear,"  said  he,  "  nor  trust  in  their 
preparations,  but  put  your  confidence  in  the  Holy 
One  and  He  shall  deliver  you." 

The  essence  of  his  message  was :  the  repose  of  a 
settled  faith.  He  urges  his  generation  to  examine 
its  life,  acquaint  itself  with  its  spiritual  responsi- 
bilities, to  think  through  the  times  to  a  real  and 
abiding  peace:  in  Zion  is  laid  a  chief  cornerstone, 
elect,  tried,  and  precious :  he  that  believeth  shall 
not  make  haste. 

History  has  abundantly  fulfilled  this  prediction. 
From  the  middle  of  the  eighth  century  b.  c.  Jeru- 
salem was  in  the  hands  of  one  after  another  of  great 
empires  :  —  Assyria,  Babylon,  Persia,  Greece,  and 
Rome ;    and    although    the    Jewish    people    passed 


108  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

through  many  vicissitudes,  they  were  able  to  sus- 
tain their  spiritual  supremacy  until  they  had  finished 
their  mission,  and  given  Christ  to  the  world. 
Throughout  that  long  period  of  discipline  the  holy 
Jews  could  have  joined  in  the  song  of  Ben  Ezra: 

"  God  spoke,  and  gave  us  the  word  to  keep. 
Bade  never  fold  the  hands  nor  sleep 
'Mid  a  faithless  world  —  at  watch  and  ward, 
Till  Christ  at  the  end  relieve  our  guard." 

When  Christ  fulfilled  the  Jewish  mission,  the  na- 
tion was  no  longer  important;  but  during  the  long 
period  of  preparation  for  the  Lord's  coming  the 
people  never  lost  their  spiritual  supremacy. 

Isaiah  v/as  very  frank  with  his  generation.  He 
tells  the  godly  people  that  they  must  get  ready 
for  more  serious  trials,  for  the  time  is  set  for  a 
consummation,  but  the  end  of  it  all  shall  be  a  stable 
peace.  The  overflowing  Assyrian  scourge  shall 
make  way  for  overflowing  righteousness ;  but  this 
deeper  experience  is  possible  only  through  a  real 
knowledge  of  the  character  and  purposes  of  God. 

We  recall  Isaiah's  ruling  conception  of  holiness 
as  an  active  force.  The  unreality  of  his  times  ap- 
palled him.  Assyria  was  hopelessly  involved  be- 
cause she  did  not  understand  the  meaning  of  her 
successes.  Setting  out  as  she  thought  to  overcome 
the  world,  it  turned  out  that  God  was  using  her  as 
a  means  for  chastising  Judah.  She  was  simply  the 
unintelligent    agent    in    a    scheme    of    vast    import. 


REPOSE  OF  A  SETTLED  FAITH       109 

Judah  was  unreal  too ;  anybody  could  see  that :  but 
underneath  the  accumulated  rubbish  there  was  some- 
thing fine,  and  beautiful  and  ideal ;  a  capacity  for 
spiritual  experience  and  heroic  devotion  unsuspected 
in  the  Laodicean  days  of  the  long  peace. 

The  hopeful  element  was  the  godly  remnant ;  but 
its  trouble  just  now  was  mental  distress  due  to  the 
anxieties  of  the  time;  for  no  matter  how  much  faith 
one  has,  it  is  exceedingly  difficult  to  live  in  harmony 
with  it,  when  you  have  no  confidence  in  your  rulers, 
when  you  know  the  instability  of  the  social  organi- 
zation, and  especially  when  your  country  is  threat- 
ened with  invasion  by  a  cruel  and  ruthless  foe. 
What  is  wanted  is  not  simply  faith,  but  ideas  which 
sustain  faith  with  reasonable  convictions,  and  afford 
one  the  opportunity  of  understanding  the  signifi- 
cance of   events. 

Isaiah  laid  down  the  proposition  that  a  long  disci- 
pline was  needed  to  fit  the  nation  for  its  religious 
mission,  and  urged  the  righteous  to  have  faith  in 
God;  but  he  sought  to  put  behind  their  faith  the 
clarity  and  courage  of  rich  and  deep  convictions ; 
not  only  that  they  might  understand  God,  but  also  be 
able  to  discern  the  signs  of  the  times.  His  aim  was 
not  simply  to  proclaim  a  faith,  but  to  propagate  it 
through  the  medium  of  great  ideas  about  God.  He 
built  up  his  theology  around  three  conceptions, 
which  the  times  were  capable  of  illustrating:  God 
is  wise,  God  is  austere,  and  God  is  kind ;  conceptions 


110  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

which  will  be  seen  to  underly  a  valid  knowledge  of 
God  to-day. 

God  is  wise,  but  what  do  we  mean  by  wisdom? 
It  is  not,  as  many  suppose,  the  mere  possession  of 
knowledge,  but  ability  to  use  knowledge  for  some 
practical  purpose.  Wisdom  is  active  knowledge, 
working  towards  constructive  ends ;  and  on  that 
account  is  often  present  in  the  most  commonplace 
affairs  of  life;  its  voice  is  heard  on  the  street  cor- 
ners and  men  ignore  it  because  it  is  so  familiar. 
Isaiah's  world  was  filled  with  conversation  about  or- 
ganization, efficiency,  and  diplomatic  arrangements. 
Such  novelties  as  treaties  based  on  tribute,  Egyptian 
alliances  and  the  like  were  called  wisdom  by  the  rul- 
ers ;  while  the  prophet's  pointed  advice  was  scornfully 
rejected  because  it  was  familiar  and  commonplace. 
His  hearers  overlooked  the  fact  that  because  wis- 
dom consistently  works  towards  certain  very  practi- 
cal ends,  it  must  of  necessity  soon  lose  all  character 
of  novelty ;  it  is  not  on  that  account  however  unim- 
portant; in  fact  the  commonness  of  a  truth  may 
be  the  measure  of  its  value  to  mankind.  That  is 
why  Isaiah  insisted  that  God  also  was  wise;  He  too 
had  His  plans  about  things ;  as  a  wise  man  sees 
his  objective  and  proceeds  by  the  most  direct  route 
to  it,  so  were  events  rapidly  moving  towards  a  Divine 
consummation. 

It  is  very  easy  to  believe  the  abstract  doctrine  that 


REPOSE  OF  A  SETTLED  FAITH       111 

God  is  wise;  but  in  practice  it  is  very  difficult  to 
believe  in  it.  Science  has  compelled  us  to  accept 
its  canon  of  order  for  the  natural  world ;  but  we  are 
still  disinclined  to  its  vigorous  application  to  the 
affairs  of  the  soul;  not  through  lack  of  evidence, 
but  simply  because  the  natural  man  is  indisposed 
to  live  in  such  a  world.  We  prefer  to  believe  in  a 
Deity  who  works  by  fits  and  starts  —  a  haphazard 
God,  who  touches  life  in  episodic  wa^'s,  by  signs  and 
wonders  of  one  sort  or  another.  We  confess  our 
preference  for  this  haphazard  Deity  whenever  we 
act  on  the  supposition  that  God  can  be  influenced 
by  ceremonies  and  ritual  performances.  The  people 
of  Jerusalem  were  great  church  goers ;  they  offered 
praise  and  sacrifice,  according  to  the  most  approved 
conventions,  but  their  interest  in  God  was  occa- 
sional and  external.  They  were  quite  willing  to 
offer  bribes  in  order  that  He  might  overlook  their 
misdoings.  But  such  a  conception  will  always  break 
down  when  it  meets  a  first  class  test ;  and  when  the 
Assyrian  came  down  like  a  wolf  on  the  fold  the  faith 
of  Judah  gave  way ;  the  rulers  could  see  nothing 
but  dire  disaster,  haphazard  mischief  running  loose, 
and  could  meet  it  only  with  what  they  called  wisdom : 
some  suggestion  of  tribute  or  alliance  with  Egypt. 
It  was  their  preference  for  such  haphazard  concep- 
tions that  led  to  the  rejection  of  Isaiah's  advice; 
it  was  highly  offensive  because  it  was  a  sane  plea 


112  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

to  seek  salvation  in  the  orderly  processes  of  life, 
rather  than  in  some  novel  scheme  devised  by  drunken 
diplomats  or  time-serving  priests. 

In  face  of  this,  the  prophet  pressed  home  to  the 
heart  of  his  generation  the  truth  that  God  was  wise, 
ruling  the  world  according  to  a  plan  both  constant 
and  consistent;  and  which  could  be  understood  by 
any  who  would  take  the  trouble  to  consider  the 
common  experiences  of  life. 

The  tribal  notion  of  a  Deity  wedded  to  a  land  of 
a  certain  people  had  degenerated  into  a  belief  that 
God  could  be  compelled  to  walk  in  a  path  of  man's 
devising.  The  false  prophets  had  affirmed  that  God 
must  care  for  Judah  no  matter  what  its  moral  con- 
dition might  be.  The  Assyrian  also  held  this  perni- 
cious doctrine  and  imagined  that  in  overcoming  na- 
tions, he  was  also  conquering  their  gods.  And  it 
is  just  possible  that  some  of  the  devout  people  were 
influenced  by  this  view.  It  lay  in  the  mind  as  a 
formless  doubt,  it  tormented  the  heart  as  an  inchoate 
fear,  for  the  course  of  events  —  the  plausible  secu- 
larities  of  the  time  —  such  as  Assyrian  success  and 
Judah's  prostration  gave  force  to  the  notion.  But 
to  this  Isaiah  opposed  his  great  idea  of  order. 
God's  control  of  this  movement  would  be  demon- 
strated in  the  course  of  time ;  Judah  needed  a  whole- 
some discipline,  but  she  would  emerge  from  it  a 
finer  and  holier  people.  God  had  summoned  As- 
syria,   the   "  rod   of   His   anger "   to   do   a    certain 


REPOSE  OF  A  SETTLED  FAITH      US 

work;  when  that  work  was  consummated  He  would 
break  the  rod  and  burn  it  in  the  fires  of  His  holiness. 
The  terrible  flood  of  visibilities  then  rolling  over  the 
land  was  of  Jehovah's  devising;  in  His  own  good 
time,  He  would  check  it. 

He  urged  the  devout  people  to  associate  this 
visitation  with  their  spiritual  hopes.  Fear  not  their 
fear,  nor  be  moved  by  their  anxieties ;  but  break  with 
the  impressionism  of  the  time  and  base  your  faith  in 
the  future  on  the  stately  orderliness  of  providence ; 
for  the  Divine  will  is  discoverable  in  experience,  and 
eventually  will  become  manifest  on  the  field  of  his- 
tory when  His  righteous  purposes  are  accomplished. 

God  is  austere.  The  hardships  of  the  Assyrian 
campaign  could  not  be  ignored.  The  innocent  were 
suffering  with  the  guilty,  and  righteousness  did  not 
give  one  immunity  from  physical  discomfort  or  loss 
of  goods.  Personal  liberty  and  life  itself  were  en- 
dangered: what  could  be  said  of  this?  If  God  con- 
trolled the  world  and  was  mercifully  inclined 
towards  His  people,  why  do  the  righteous  suffer? 

This  problem  was  not  as  acute  then  as  it  became 
later,  when  through  the  long  discipline  of  the  Baby- 
lonian captivity  the  Jew  gained  an  enlarged  sense  of 
personal  significance ;  still  it  was  serious  enough,  and 
Isaiah  met  it  with  the  teaching  that  God's  methods 
must  sometimes  be  painful.  Suffering  offered  no 
problem  for  the  guilty,  but  for  the  devout  Jew  it 
was  a  very  serious  matter ;  and  Isaiah's  teaching  an- 


114  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

ticipates  that  of  Jesus :  "  Every  branch  in  me  that 
beareth  fruit,  he  purgeth  it,  that  it  may  bring  forth 
more  fruit."  This  strange  work  of  God  is  seen  in 
all  ages.  Under  trial  the  good  become  better ;  some- 
times a  whole  nation  like  our  own  will  through  the 
hardships  of  war  cast  off  its  materialism  and  be- 
come fully  conscious  of  its  idealistic  spirit;  the 
processes  are  always  painful,  but  the  consequences 
are   beyond   question  beneficial. 

The  purpose  of  this  painful  experience  according 
to  the  prophet  was  a  closer  intimacy  with  God.  He 
taught  the  truth  in  principle  that  without  the  shed- 
ding of  blood  there  can  be  no  remission  of  anything. 
This  truth  of  atonement  —  the  basic  principle  of 
Christianity  —  cannot  be  learned  out  of  a  book,  but 
must  be  evolved  from  actual  experience.  If  there 
had  been  no  unmerited  sufferings  in  the  prophet's 
age,  there  had  been  no  fifty  third  chapter  of  Isaiah. 

Pain  is  the  great  quickener  of  the  soul ;  from  it  as 
from  no  other  teacher  do  we  learn  the  sacramental 
character  of  life.  We  are  beginning  to  think  vitally 
again  about  the  atonement  of  Christ,  because  the  war 
brought  the  opportunity  to  large  masses  of  people 
of  becoming  aware  of  the  awakening  character  of 
sacrifice.  Our  sons  have  shown  us  Christ ;  as  they 
shed  their  blood  to  put  away  the  German  evil,  so 
has  Christ  through  His  atonement  put  away  our 
sins  and  made  us  fit  to  become  the  sons  of  God.  One 
of  the  great  gains  of  the  war  has  been  the  calling 


REPOSE  OF  A  SETTLED  FAITH      115 

forth  of  a  spirit  of  sacrifice  which  has  enabled  us 
the  better  to  comprehend  the  death  of  Jesus  Christ. 

This  is  the  meaning  of  the  Divine  austerity ;  the 
permanent  gains  of  life  come  to  us  through  suffering. 
We  forget  our  pleasures  quickly  but  our  pains  we 
remember  forever ;  and  it  was  because  Isaiah  saw 
Jehovah's  orderly  purposes  manifesting  themselves 
through  pain,  that  he  was  enabled  to  say  a  third 
thing  about  God. 

God  is  kind.  The  object  of  painful  experience  is 
to  bring  man  into  closer  intimacy  with  the  parent 
source  of  life.  Like  a  mother  bird,  hovering  over 
Jerusalem  —  that  is  Isaiah's  conception  of  loving 
kindness.  Suffering  was  not  punishment,  neither  was 
it  limited  to  discipline ;  its  final  purpose  was  com- 
munion with  the  eternal  in  the  deepest  experiences  of 
the  Divine  life ;  for  suffering  for  others  is  the  very  life 
of  God ;  and  perfect  communion  with  Him  is  possible 
only  through  a  like  experience. 

This  is  a  profound  truth,  slowly  developed  by 
the  prophets,  and  fully  expressed  in  the  atoning 
mercy  of  our  Lord:  but  I  wonder  if  we  have  yet 
realized  it.^*  Discipline,  even  for  the  best  and  most 
obedient,  is  a  sorry  business,  unless  it  yield  some 
kind  of  fruit.  If  discipline  is  to  be  acceptable,  we 
much  pass  through  it  to  some  sort  of  fellowship, 
since  what  is  wanted  by  the  heavy  laden  spirit  is 
encouragement.  Not  suffering  of  itself,  but  suffer- 
ing without  explanation,  in  loneliness  and  isolation, 


116  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

which  seems  to  yield  no  fruit  —  that  is  the  real  prob- 
lem of  life.  It  was  then,  it  is  now.  Discipline  is 
and  remains  under  all  explanations,  a  hard  word; 
for  it  stands  at  best  for  resignation  towards  a  uni- 
verse you  do  not  understand.  What  man  requires 
is  to  believe  that  the  universe  is  friendly,  that  its 
most  austere  processes  are  instinct  with  kindness ; 
and  that  is  what  we  get  here.  Grant  that  suffering 
has  meaning,  that  it  has  been  and  always  will  be  the 
royal  road  to  Divine  intimacy,  and  we  may  accept 
it  and  bear  it  with  a  sort  of  enthusiasm ;  and  this  is 
Isaiah's  argument:  and  most  beautifully  does  he 
illustrate  it  at  the  end  of  the  twenty  eighth  chapter. 

The  farmer  does  not  always  plow ;  when  the  ground 
is  ready  he  plants  the  seed,  and  when  the  harvest 
comes,  he  deals  with  each  growth  according  to  its 
nature.  He  does  not  thresh  the  fitches  with  a  thresh- 
ing instrument  lest  he  bruise  them;  neither  does  he 
turn  a  cart  wheel  over  the  cummin  lest  he  crush  it; 
but  he  beats  out  the  one  with  a  staff  and  the  other 
with  a  rod.  So  is  it  with  God.  His  wisdom  is 
austere,  but  its  issue  is  loving  kindness :  "  He  know- 
eth  our  frame;  He  remembereth  that  we  are  dust." 
Thus  Isaiah  appealed  to  the  righteous  in  his  day. 
He  urged  them  to  believe  in  God  in  face  of  an  austere 
situation  because  He  was  both  wise  and  merciful ; 
and  his  message  is  valid  for  our  time. 

The  common  defect  of  life  before  the  great  war 
was   a  partial  view  of  God.      Science  had  given  us 


REPOSE  OF  A  SETTLED  FAITH      117 

a  positive  conception  of  order  in  the  natural  world; 
its  method  was  adopted  for  the  study  of  religious 
and  social  problems;  but  we  have  been  unwilling  to 
vigorously  apply  the  concept  to  the  individual  life, 
or  accept  it  as  a  sanction  for  private  conduct. 

We  have  thought  of  God  too  much  from  the  point 
of  view  of  theory.  He  was  a  dogma  written  in  a 
book,  to  be  disputed  about,  analyzed  and  developed 
into  a  philosophy  barren  of  practical  value.  To 
many  He  was  little  more  than  a  departmental  Deity, 
presiding  over  some  restricted  domain  of  life.  He 
was  interested  only  in  what  men  wanted  done:  to 
one  He  was  a  zealot  for  temperance,  to  another  for 
political  reform  or  social  service.  Some  nations  like 
that  of  Germany,  regarded  Him  as  a  tribal  Deity, 
concerned  with  the  development  of  a  particular  peo- 
ple; while  many  simply  took  Him  for  granted  and 
thought  no  more  about  it.  To  the  man  in  the  street, 
the  traditional  notion  of  religion  often  seemed  little 
more  than  a  belief  in  a  haphazard  Deity,  revealing 
Himself  in  the  form  of  interference  with  human 
progress,  or  touching  life  only  in  episodic  ways. 
But  of  God's  holiness  —  that  tremendous  fire  which 
burns  round  this  planet,  and  determines  the  meaning 
of  reality  for  men  and  nations,  we  have  thought 
but  little.  Life  was  settling  on  its  lees  ;  the  mind  was 
becoming  stale  and  dull,  in  religious  matters  in- 
capable of  moving  out  of  fixed  channels ;  we  measured 
ourselves  by  ourselves,  and  compared  ourselves  with 


118  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

ourselves  and  were  quite  unwilling  to  take  an  im- 
partial view. 

Then  came  the  war  and  we  gradually  awoke  to 
reality ;  we  became  aware  of  the  monstrous  power  of 
evil  let  loose  in  the  world  —  the  Satanic  possibilities 
of  human  nature  even  when  developed  under  the 
highest  type  of  civilization ;  we  discovered  the  funda- 
mental difference  between  right  and  wrong;  if  right 
was  to  prevail  we  must  fight  for  it,  and  if  need  be, 
die  for  it ;  and  this  forced  us  to  abandon  a  super- 
ficial view  of  ourselves ;  we  learned  the  deep  truth 
that  only  by  shedding  blood  can  evil  be  put  away ; 
and  as  the  nation  responded  to  the  sacrificial  im- 
peratives of  its  mission,  it  grew  in  mental  and  moral 
stature.  We  discovered  above  all  the  need  of  deep 
and  sustained  beliefs ;  we  felt  that  we  must  have  a 
better  conception  of  God  and  His  relation  to  what 
was  going  on  here.  We  knew  from  the  start,  that 
He  could  not  be  indifferent,  but  it  was  left  for  us  to 
discover,  so  soon  as  the  progress  of  the  war  had 
reduced  the  issues  to  one  —  a  conflict  between  good 
and  evil  —  not  that  God  must  take  our  side,  but  that 
we  must  take  His  side. 

Who  can  now  doubt  but  that  the  issue  of  the  war 
was  determined  by  moral  principle  struggling  with 
and  finally  overcoming  organized  evil;  or  fail  to  ac- 
cept the  clear  implication  that  the  strength  and  vi- 
tality of  moral  principle,  even  under  the  severest  tests 
was  due  to  the  influence  of  Christianity  on  the  Allied 


REPOSE  OF  A  SETTLED  FAITH      119 

nations?  A  lie  cannot  live,  neither  can  a  truth  die; 
and  if  the  Allies  have  triumphed  over  a  system 
founded  on  falsehood  it  has  been  due  to  the  fact 
that  they  could  in  some  fashion  survive  in  the 
tremendous  fires  of  reality  which  have  been  burning 
round  this  planet;  some  deposit  in  these  nations  of 
value  to  mankind,  which  it  was  God's  purpose  to 
refine  and  preserve.  Isaiah  maintained  that  Judah 
was  inviolate  simply  because  she  had  a  spiritual 
commission  for  mankind.  The  supreme  revelation 
of  the  war  has  been  the  discovery  that  God  had 
laid  among  the  Allied  nations  a  chief  cornerstone, 
elect,  tried,  and  precious.  So  far  as  we  can  see, 
the  spiritual  future  of  the  race  depends  on  the  per- 
sistence of  that  sort  of  civilization  German 
autocracy  tried  to  destroy.  If  Germany  failed, 
it  was  because  she  was  unreal;  she  could  not  live 
in  the  fire;  the  Allied  cause  survived,  and  came  out 
of  the  war  a  refined  and  beautiful  thing,  because 
it  was  in  some  measure  in  harmony  with  God's  pur- 
poses for  the  future. 

In  working  out  this  great  task,  there  has  been 
hardship,  suffering  and  death ;  it  was  necessary 
that  through  our  pains  and  sacrifices  we  should 
realize  the  spiritual  meaning  of  the  struggle.  The 
war  was  not  an  accident ;  it  was  part  of  a  plan  of 
vast  significance  for  mankind ;  and  our  faith  in  the 
future  will  be  intelligent  and  consistent  if  we  accept 
the  three  truths  about  God,  that  He  is  wise,  austere, 


1£0  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

and  kind.  We  must  not  shrink  from  the  element 
of  austerity,  for  its  acceptance  is  necessary  to  the 
morale  of  reconstruction.  We  must  cheerfully  put 
up  with  our  losses,  and  learn  from  our  sacrifices 
how  to  direct  our  hearts  into  deeper  spiritual  in- 
timacies. 

From  wisdom,  which  is  the  world's  order,  through 
austerity,  which  is  the  essence  of  discipline,  we  shall 
advance  to  loving  kindness,  which  is  the  world's 
peace;  fear  shall  lose  its  power  and  life  shall  gain 
its  inspiration  from  communion  with  the  eternal 
God. 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE    STATELY    MARCH    OF    PROVIDENCE 

Isaiah  xxxvii:6-7:  "And  Isaiah  said  unto  the  servants  of 
king  Hezekiah,  Thus  shall  ye  say  to  your  master,  Thus  saith  the 
Lord:  Be  not  afraid  of  the  words  that  thou  hast  heard,  where- 
with the  servants  of  the  king  of  Assyria  have  blasphemed  me. 
Behold,  I  will  put  a  spirit  in  him,  and  he  shall  hear  a  rumor, 
and  shall  return  unto  his  own  land." 

This  is  the  culmination  of  Isaiah's  great  career. 
For  forty  years  he  had  consistently  maintained  the 
inviolability  of  Jerusalem ;  and  his  confidence  in- 
creased as  the  deadly  menace  of  Assyria  developed 
into  series  of  successful  campaigns  against  Pales- 
tinian states.  Humanly  speaking,  as  early  as  b.  c. 
721,  when  the  fall  of  Samaria  brought  home  to 
Jerusalem  the  fear  of  captivity,  there  was  nothing 
to  prevent  the  taking  of  the  holy  city.  Yet  the 
prophet  did  not  hesitate  to  predict  the  failure  of 
that  ambitious  scheme.  His  faith,  as  we  have  seen, 
was  not  based  on  human  measures,  for  he  had  as 
little  confidence  in  the  military  ability  of  his  people 
as  he  had  in  the  promises  of  Egypt;  neither  did  he 
underestimate  the  power  of  the  enemy.  His  faith 
was  grounded  upon  the  conviction  that  God  would 
not  permit  the  captivity  of  the  chosen  people  at  that 

121 


122  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

time  because  He  had  committed  unto  them  the 
spiritual  future  of  the  world.  In  Zion  had  been 
laid  a  chief  cornerstone ;  whosoever  believed  in  this 
spiritual   fact   should  neither   falter   nor   fail. 

When  Sargon  took  Samaria  in  b.  c.  722,  instead 
of  advancing  as  he  desired  to  the  walls  of  Jerusalem, 
he  was  obliged  to  return  home  to  put  down  a  revolt 
in  Babylon,  and  the  siege  of  the  city  was  postponed 
for  twenty  years.  During  that  period  Sargon's 
successor,  Sennacherib,  was  occupied  with  domestic 
affairs,  but  in  b.  c.  701,  the  westward  offensive  was 
resumed. 

During  this  interval  Judah  had  rest  from  war, 
and  the  pernicious  Egyptian  policy  which  Isaiah 
had  condemned  was  allowed  to  ripen  and  bring  forth 
evil  fruit.  Egypt  knew  perfectly  well  what  Assyria 
was  about ;  she  could  not  hope  to  meet  her  success- 
fully in  the  field,  and  her  only  chance  was  to  wear 
down  her  spirit  by  keeping  her  continually  involved 
with  the  little  Palestinian  states.  While  the  dis- 
tance from  Assyria  to  Egypt  was  only  490  miles 
it  had  taken  Assyria  45  years  to  reach  the  heart 
of  Palestine  and  she  was  still  far  from  her  real  ob- 
jective. It  was  highly  expedient  therefore  to  en- 
courage revolutions  in  the  Palestinian  kingdoms, 
chiefly  by   promises   of   aid  which  was  never  given. 

During  this  period  Ekron,  a  city  of  Philistia,  en- 
couraged by  Egypt  revolted,  withheld  its  tribute, 
and   dethroned  the  Assyrian  vassal  king  Padi   and 


STATELY  MARCH  OF  PROVIDENCE      123 

sent  him  in  chains  to  Hezekiah  for  safe  keeping. 
This  was  a  cunning  Egyptian  trick  to  involve  Judah 
with  her  powerful  enemy  and  the  result  was  a  fore- 
gone conclusion ;  for  in  b.  c.  701  Sennacherib  at  the 
head  of  a  huge  army  appeared  in  Palestine,  re- 
captured Ekron,  met  a  small  Egyptian  force  at 
Eltekeh,  defeated  it  and  then  turned  back  to  punish 
Judah  for  her  share  in  the  mischief.  He  took  forty 
six  walled  towns,  shut  up  Hezekiali  in  Jerusalem 
like  a  bird  in  a  cage ;  and  the  nation  was  completely 
prostrated  by  the  turn  of  events. 

The  besieging  force,  a  detachment  of  the  main 
army,  was  accompanied  by  a  certain  civilian  chan- 
cellor known  as  the  Rabshakeh,  a  sort  of  devil's 
orator.  His  negotiations  with  the  ambassadors  of 
Jerusalem  bring  into  strong  relief  the  characteristic 
views  of  the  situation. 

The  Rabshakeh  was  a  resourceful  man,  and  well 
he  might  be  with  an  army  at  his  back.  His  speeches 
betray  considerable  acquaintance  with  the  lower 
aspects  of  human  nature,  a  fair  knowledge,  too,  of 
the  world.  In  fact  he  acts  and  talks  like  a  Ger- 
man and  his  demeanor  reminds  one  of  Von  Beth- 
mann-Hollweg  at  the  head  of  the  Prussian  legions. 
He  is  contemptuous  of  small  nations  and  despises 
provincial  peoples ;  he  had  shrewd  insight  into 
character  of  a  certain  sort  which  enabled  him  to  pass 
for  a  wise  man ;  but  of  knowledge  of  the  spirit  of  the 
people  with  whom  he  is  dealing  he  shows  not  a  trace. 


124r  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

He  stands  there  —  this  hammer  of  a  man  —  with 
an  army  at  his  back,  in  full  view  of  the  people ;  about 
their  mud  walls  they  could  hear  the  stammering 
tongues  of  a  strange  and  mighty  race.  The  over- 
flowing scourge  had  at  last  reached  their  gates. 
Was  not  this  what  Isaiah  had  predicted  at  a  mem- 
orable dinner  party  some  twenty  five  years  be- 
fore :  —  precept  upon  precept,  line  upon  line,  here 
a  little  and  there  a  little  —  this  monotonous  pound- 
ing of  battering  rams  on  their  defenses,  yea  too,  on 
their  weak  and  fearful  hearts? 

The  Rabshakeh  keenly  sensed  the  situation  and 
took  the  opportunity  to  heighten  the  effect  of  his 
discourse  by  speaking  in  the  Jews'  language,  over 
the  heads  of  the  ambassadors,  directly  to  the  panic 

stricken  folk  on  the  walls a  vile  example  of  open 

diplomacy  —  and  this  is  what  he  said :  — 

"  Your  Egyptian  policy  has  disappointed  3'Ou, 
for  you  now  know  what  we  did  to  her  at  Eltekeh ;  and 
do  you  expect  aid  from  your  god?  Well,  how  do  you 
think  he  likes  having  his  sanctuaries  removed  from 
the  high  places  and  all  his  influence  concentrated 
in  this  insignificant  town ;  can  you  expect  his  protec- 
tion when  you  treat  him  in  this  fashion?  Besides 
have  I  not  come  up  against  you  in  spite  of  him? 
And  if  he  did  not  stop  me  at  first,  do  you  suppose 
he  can  stop  me  now?  "  At  this  point  the  cowardly 
ambassadors  besought  him  not  to  speak  any  more 
in   the   Jews'   language,   but   rather   in   the    Syrian 


STATELY  MARCH  OF  PROVIDENCE      125 

tongue  for  fear  of  spreading  panic  in  the  city. 
But  he  replied,  with  characteristic  Teutonic  ef- 
frontery, in  a  louder  voice  than  ever :  "  You  are 
a  contemptible  people  anywa}^,  but  after  all  what 
is  the  use  of  making  all  this  trouble  for  us?  Why 
not  remain  quietly  here,  every  one  eating  his  own 
food  and  dwelling  under  his  own  vine  and  fig  tree 
until  we  clean  up  this  Egyptian  muddle,  and  then 
we  will  take  you  back  to  our  glorious  country  where 
you  will  enjoy  the  civilizing  influence  of  our 
*  kultur.'  What  a  wonderful  thing  it  will  be  to  be- 
come good  Assyrians  like  ourselves.  Do  not  believe 
what  your  king  tells  you  about  your  God  aiding 
you,  for  you  ought  to  know  what  we  have  done  to 
other  gods,  and  what  happened  in  Samaria  will  as 
certainly  happen  to  you  if  you  do  not  submit  to  our 
wishes." 

All  this  would  have  a  remote  interest  if  it  did  not 
accurately  illustrate  the  temper  of  Germany  in 
dealing  with  the  small  nations  that  have  stood  like 
stone  walls  in  her  path  to  world  dominion.  This 
man  talks  and  reasons  like  a  German  diplomat;  and 
betrays  the  same  ignorance  of  the  power  of  a  racial 
spirit  to  triumph  over  material  sufferings,  which  has 
characterized  German  policy  in  recent  years.  The 
Assyrian  did  not  believe  that  the  people  of  Judah 
would  expose  themselves  to  anything  so  expensive 
and  painful  as  a  siege ;  and  was  not  this  Germany's 
notion     about    Belgium?     Why     should     they    risk 


126  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

physical  ruin  for  something  so  intangible  and  un- 
marketable as  national  honor?  Great  Britain 
would  not  fight  for  a  mere  "  scrap  of  paper " ; 
neither  would  America  come  into  the  war  because  it 
was  against  her  material  interests.  This  is  the  low 
level  to  which  a  nation  will  descend  when  it  stakes 
everything  on  brute  force  and  material  efficiency ; 
and  overlooks  what  Bismarck  called  the  "  value  of 
the  imponderables."  The  imponderable  thing  here 
was  Judah's  spiritual  destiny  —  her  religious  and 
racial  spirit ;  it  was  upon  this  intangible  rock  that 
Assyrian  hopes  were  wrecked,  as  it  was  upon  the  in- 
visible but  potent  moral  idealism  of  the  Allied 
peoples  that  Germany  dashed  herself  to  pieces. 

But  Judah's  great  spirit  did  not  animate  the 
hearts  of  those  craven  diplomats,  "  squeaking,  gib- 
bering shadows  of  men  "  who  so  fearfully  conducted 
the  negotiations.  They  frankly  confessed  that  they 
had  no  policy.  Perhaps  they  remembered  what 
Isaiah  had  been  saying  of  all  their  wise  schemes, 
or  recalled  their  frenzied  optimism  when  a  short 
while  ago  poor  old  Padi  had  been  brought  in  chains 
to  Jerusalem  to  make  a  Jewish  holiday ;  and  how 
the  town  went  wild  with  delight  and  expected  the 
speedy  advent  of  a  political  millennium.  Even  the 
king  was  not  altogether  certain  of  the  issue.  He 
was  a  man  of  faith,  and  had  refused  to  yield  to 
Assyria's    threats.     He   went   into    the    Temple    to 


STATELY  MARCH  OF  PROVIDENCE      127 

pray,  and  very  wisely  appealed  to  Isaiah  to  clear 
the  atmosphere  and  suggest  a  suitable  policy. 

Prophets  do  not  predict  events,  but  eventualities. 
Isaiah  did  not  tell  the  king  when  or  in  precisely 
what  manner  the  Assyrian  would  come  to  grief; 
he  plainly  said  that  in  God's  good  time  he  would 
be  turned  back.  And  while  the  Rabshakeh  was  bawl- 
ing Teutonic  blasphemies  under  the  walls  of  Jeru- 
salem, wliile  the  king  lay  prostrate  in  the  house  of 
prayer,  God  stopped  the  main  army  of  Assyria  at 
Pelusium  on  the  borders  of  Egypt ;  and  one  morn- 
ing the  watchers  on  the  walls  were  amazed  to  note 
the  departure  of  the  besieging  force. 

We  need  not  trouble  ourselves  with  the  secondary 
causes  that  brought  about  this  astonishing  volte- 
face.  The  truth  is  that  the  fire  of  reality  had 
reached  the  vitals  of  the  Assyrian.  He  came  to  an 
invisible  line  on  which  was  written :  "  They  shall 
not  pass  "  and  he  had  to  turn  back.  It  is  significant 
of  much  that  Sennacherib  said  nothing  about  it ;  he 
did  not  even  venture  to  call  it  a  "  retreat  to  victory." 
The  fact  of  immense  consequence  is  that  when  suc- 
cess was  almost  within  his  grasp,  he  abandoned  the 
campaign,  returned  to  jNIesopotamia,  and  came  no 
more  to  trouble  the  land. 

At  first  the  inhabitants  of  the  city  could  not 
believe  in  their  good  fortune ;  it  was  too  good  to  be 
true ;  but  when  the  people  found  voice  they  expressed 


128  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

their  feelings  according  to  their  bent.  The 
spiritually  minded  gave  vent  to  their  joy  in  the 
forty  sixth  Psalm:  "God  is  our  refuge  and 
strength,  a  very  present  help  in  trouble."  Jeru- 
salem, after  years  of  stress  and  strain  had  become 
a  quiet  habitation. 

But  first  impressions  are  of  little  value;  our 
interest  is  in  the  vindication  of  the  prophet  and  the 
final  effect  of  the  great  deliverance  on  the  nation. 
We  shall  then  be  in  a  position  to  estimate  its  value 
for  our  time. 

The  deliverance  of  Jerusalem  was  plainly  an  act 
of  God,  and  this  event  was  the  logical  culmination 
of  the  spiritual  interpretation  of  history  which  had 
characterized  Isaiah's  long  ministry.  He  believed 
that  God  was  an  active  righteousness,  that  men  and 
nations  and  things  dwelt  in  an  atmosphere  of  holy 
fire;  and  that  ability  to  live  therein  was  the  sole 
test  of  reality.  God  had  brought  the  Assyrian  into 
Palestine  for  certain  disciplinary  purposes.  The 
great  event  had  transpired  according  to  program, 
not  because  the  prophet  was  gifted  with  a  magical 
revelation  of  the  future,  but  as  the  direct  result  of 
spiritual  insight.  To  understand  God's  nature  is 
to  be  in  a  position  to  say  how  His  providence  will 
affect  history.  If  God  were  a  consuming  fire  and 
Assyria  unfit  to  live  in  it,  then  Assyria  was  doomed ; 
and  the  historic  vindication  of  the  prophet's 
ministry  was   a   clear  demonstration   of  his   unique 


STATELY  MARCH  OF  PROVIDENCE      129 

conception  of  the  righteousness  and  universal 
providence  of  the  Lord  of  Hosts. 

This  principle  is  still  valid.  God  has  not  changed, 
neither  has  human  nature.  We  are  made  of  the 
same  red  clay ;  the  same  forces  are  working  in  the 
modern  world  as  made  up  the  history  of  the  eighth 
century  before  Christ ;  and  until  God  changes  or 
man's  constitution  is  fundamentally  altered  history, 
destiny,  national  and  individual  life  will  be  subject 
to  the  same  laws.  That  is  why  autocratic  Ger- 
many failed.  No  nation  has  ever  been  able  to  live 
in  the  holy  fires  on  other  terms  than  moral  reality. 
It  may  last  a  long  time  and  do  immense  harm  to 
the  spiritual  interests  of  humanity,  but  its  doom  is 
certain. 

Let  us  not  be  impatient  with  God,  nor  count  His 
long  suffering  as  slackness.  One  day  with  Him  is 
as  a  thousand  years,  and  a  thousand  years  as  one 
da}'.  He  cannot  be  hurried,  neither  do  His  plans 
develop  prematurely;  and  the  reason  is  that  all 
racial  experiences  are  designed  to  make  Him  known. 
Knowledge  of  both  God  and  man  can  come  only 
through  a  prolonged  conflict  between  good  and  evil, 
such  as  was  illustrated  by  the  struggle  of  Assyria 
with  Judah.  The  Hebrews  gained  greatly  in 
knowledge  of  God  through  their  Assyrian  discipline; 
so  have  we  in  our  conflict  with  Germany ;  but  whether 
such  knowledge  is  to  result  in  a  permanent  or  tem- 
porary gain   will   depend   on   our   receptivity;    and 


130  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

that  is  the  standard  by  which  to  measure  the  value 
of  this  deliverance  to  the  generation  to  which  Isaiah 
belonged. 

On  the  ruling  classes  the  chief  impression  of  the 
experience  was  that  religion  after  all  had  a  place  in 
social  and  political  life.  It  led  to  certain  reforms, 
for  even  the  most  thoughtless  were  disposed  to  admit 
that  it  had  been  a  good  thing  for  the  nation  to  have 
religious  people  in  it. 

This  often  happens ;  social  disturbances  turn 
men's  thoughts  towards  God;  political  changes  set 
them  on  fresh  quests  for  peace,  while  even  skeptical 
statesmen  are  disposed  to  confess  in  such  crises 
that  religion  is  needed  to  furnish  sanctions  for  gov- 
ernment. But  the  danger,  ever  present  in  abnormal 
times,  is  that  interest  in  religion  will  be  limited  to 
what  is  expedient.  When  the  Assyrian  was  far 
from  their  gates,  the  rulers  had  ridiculed  the 
prophet's  advice,  on  the  ground  that  religion  as  he 
understood  it  had  no  value  for  the  diplomat  or 
statesman,  because  it  offered  no  solution  for  their 
problems;  was  in  fact  mere  childishness:  precept 
upon  precept,  and  line  upon  line;  but  now  that 
events  had  vindicated  the  prophet  they  were  dis- 
posed to  agree  with  him.  It  was  a  mighty  good 
thing  after  all  that  God  was  on  their  side.  Such 
a  position  often  leads  to  false  security  and  self- 
deception  ;  for  many  will  speak  well  of  religion, 
urge  it  on  their  neighbors,  and  even  use  it  super- 


STATELY  MARCH  OF  PROVIDENCE      131 

ficlally  as  a  social  or  political  panacea  without  the 
slightest  intention  of  becoming  religious  themselves. 
The  superficial  interest  in  religious  reform  de- 
veloped a  line  of  cleavage  among  the  people ;  it  af- 
forded a  fitting  background  for  the  sterling  worth 
of  the  godly  remnant.  They  were  profoundly  and 
gloriousl}^  impressed  with  the  turn  of  events.  They 
saw  in  religion  no  temporary  expedient  for  safe- 
guarding a  nation's  material  well  being,  but  an  abid- 
ing relationship  to  a  holy  and  gracious  God.  They 
had  passed  through  the  purging  fires  along  with 
their  neighbors,  but  had  come  forth  refined  and  puri- 
fied. They  had  discovered  God  afresh;  as  it  had 
been  in  former  times  so  had  they  seen  the  Divine 
power  in  the  holy  city.  It  set  them  to  thinking  of 
the  loving  kindness  of  the  Lord  in  the  midst  of  the 
temple.  In  the  days  of  their  trouble  they  had 
earnestly  prayed  for  deliverance,  and  now  they 
realized  that  it  was  by  terrible  and  glorious  things 
that  God  had  answered  them.  They  had  learned 
the  painful  but  salutary  truth  that  God  was  not 
conducting  the  world  in  the  interests  of  their  happi- 
ness but  for  the  satisfaction  of  their  spiritual 
natures,  and  that  such  satisfaction  could  not  be 
obtained  apart  from  pain  and  sacrifice.  They  had 
lost  most  of  their  worldly  goods,  and  all  their  com- 
fortableness, but  had  grown  in  mental  and  moral 
stature.  They  had  left  the  nest,  but  were  beginning 
to  love  the  arena,  and  were  greatly  alive  to  the  spirit- 


132  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

ual  implications  of  their  race.  They  no  longer  at- 
tached primary  importance  to  outward  events,  but 
found  their  peace  and  joy  in  the  deep  river  of  God 
flowing  through  their  souls.  Had  Judah  been  made 
up  solely  of  such  people,  there  had  been  no  need 
of  further  discipline.  They  were  the  reason  why 
Jerusalem  remained  inviolate,  but  unfortunately 
they  composed  but  a  minority  as  they  always  do, 
of  a  given  generation. 

The  majority  was  subject  to  reaction,  the  first 
phase  of  which  was  a  fear  of  God  untempered  by 
faith.  The  sinners  in  Zion,  that  is  the  careless 
ones,  began  to  reflect  upon  the  deeper  significance 
of  that  destructive  providence  which  had  checked 
the  Assyrian  in  his  headlong  course;  they  were 
beginning  to  feel  the  heat  of  that  tremendous  fire 
of  holiness  which  burned  round  the  nations,  and  dis- 
covered their  liability  to  its  power;  fearfulness  sur- 
prised the  godless  ones  and  they  began  to  say: 
"  Who  among  us  shall  dwell  with  the  devouring  fire  ? 
who  among  us  shall  dwell  with  everlasting  burn- 
ings ?  "  Isaiah  replied :  "  Learn  to  walk  up- 
rightly, despise  the  gain  of  oppression,  have  done 
with  the  taking  of  bribes,  stop  your  ears  to  the 
hearing  of  blood  and  shut  your  eyes  from  the 
seeing  of  evil,  and  you  shall  see  the  king  in  his 
beauty." 

One  would  think  that  this  ought  to  lead  to  repent- 
ance but  it  never  does.     It  was  just  a  craven  fear 


STATELY  MARCH  OF  PROVIDENCE      133 

of  unknown  forces ;  terror  of  God  had  overtaken 
them  in  their  sins,  and  their  supreme  wish  was  to  get 
rid  of  it  without  changing  their  life;  and  being  in- 
capable of  learning  from  experience  a  second  phase 
of  reaction  set  in:  they  grew  weary  of  outward  re- 
forms ;  Isaiah  and  Hezekiah  died  and  Manasseh,  a 
man  of  their  own  heart,  came  to  the  throne.  They 
lost  their  spiritual  guides,  prophets  ceased  among 
them ;  and  having  nothing  left  of  the  great  deliv- 
erance but  unpleasant  recollections,  they  were  con- 
tent to  drift;  so  that  in  less  than  fifteen  years  the 
nation  had  lost  all  its  spiritual  advantages,  and  had 
fallen  into  a  condition  of  godlessness  worse  than  be- 
fore. They  even  began  to  praise  Assyria's  methods, 
for  had  they  not  made  her  rich  and  successful?  A 
deadly  calm  came  over  the  land,  minds  grew  stale 
again  and  the  whole  nation  settled  on  its  lees. 

The  holy  religion  lost  its  attraction,  simply  be- 
cause it  was  common  and  familiar,  and  since  Isaiah 
had  put  the  fear  of  God  in  their  hearts,  the  thought 
of  religion  made  them  uncomfortable;  besides  many 
thought  that  it  might  be  a  good  thing  to  adopt  the 
gods  of  Assyria  along  with  her  methods ;  while  others 
were  in  favor  of  reviving  interest  in  the  old  Canaan- 
itish  cults  with  their  colorful  and  sensuous  attrac- 
tions. Along  with  the  passion  for  idolatry  there 
developed  hatred  for  tlie  godly,  and  as  George  Adam 
Smith  remarks,  the  "  holy  remnant  became  a  suffer- 
ing remnant."     The  presence  of  such  people  in  the 


134  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

nation  was  a  standing  rebuke;  they  served  only  to 
remind  the  masses  of  a  God  whom  they  would  like 
to  forget ;  and  they  varied  their  heathenish  practices 
with  the  persecution  of  the  saints.  The  temple  was 
neglected  and  fell  into  disuse ;  finally  they  lost  their 
Bible,  and  inevitably  drifted  towards  ruin. 

This  was  the  doom  of  the  Hebrev/  nation,  for 
from  that  hour  God  determined  to  rid  the  spiritual 
remnant  of  the  godless  incubus.  You  see  this  in  the 
contrast  between  the  ministries  of  Isaiah  and  Jere- 
miah. One  said  that  Jerusalem  was  inviolate  be- 
cause God  had  laid  there  a  chief  cornerstone;  the 
other  that  Jerusalem  must  be  taken  and  destroyed 
because  God  had  determined  to  abandon  her.  It 
was  Isaiah's  mission  to  preach  deliverance ;  seventy 
five  years  later  it  was  Jeremiah's  mission  to  proclaim 
captivity.  In  Jeremiah's  time,  the  remnant,  not  the 
nation,  was  the  unit  of  God's  thought.  Nothing 
short  of  national  ruin  could  deliver  the  spiritual 
forces  of  the  race  from  their  secular  limitations, 
and  from  that  time  onward  the  dominant  concep- 
tion of  the  prophets  was  not  the  Hebrew  nation  but 
the  Jewish  church. 

God's  ways  are  sometimes  strange,  always  lei- 
surely, but  wonderfully  effective.  History  vindi- 
cated Jeremiah  as  it  did  Isaiah,  but  it  took  six  hun- 
dred years  to  do  it.  The  Judaism  that  was  the 
parent  of  Christianity  came  from  those  holy  Jews 
who  had  refused  to  sell  their  birthright  for  a  mess  of 


STATELY  MARCH  OF  PROVIDENCE      135 

pottage,  even  though  they  knew  that  they  were  pre- 
destined to  share  in  the  hardships  and  sufferings 
growing  out  of  the  final  rejection  of  the  nation. 

The  lesson  here  for  the  United  States  is  this,  that 
no  nation,  not  even  one  specifically  selected  for  a 
great  spiritual  service,  is  immortal.  A  nation  is 
only  a  containing  vessel.  The  pathwa}^  of  the  race 
is  littered  with  discarded  containers :  Egypt, 
Assyria,  Babylon,  Persia,  Greece,  Rome,  Judea,  and 
now  autocratic  Germany.  What  gave  importance 
to  the  container  was  the  spirit  of  the  people. 
Archaeology  is  the  study  of  discarded  containers ; 
history  is  the  scrutiny  of  the  spirit  that  gave  them 
life.  The  spiritual  quality  of  the  people  is  the  es- 
sential element  in  the  durability  of  an  organism 
which  shares  in  the  changeableness  and  mortality  of 
all  earthly  things. 

We  must  try  to  think  of  our  nation  in  this  way. 
There  can  be  little  doubt  but  that  the  moral  well 
being  of  humanity  depends  in  great  measure  on  the 
civilization  represented  by  Great  Britain  and  the 
United  States.  The  social  and  political  fruits  of 
Christianity  in  the  western  world  would  have  been 
lost  if  Germany  had  won  the  war.  To  share  in  the 
preservation  of  such  a  civiliz?ation  is  an  opportunity 
that  comes  to  few  peoples ;  but  it  is  an  opportunity, 
the  value  of  which  in  the  period  of  reconstruction, 
will  depend  chiefly  on  ourselves. 

We  must  get  rid  of  the  popular  delusion  that  be- 


136  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

cause  a  nation  passes  through  a  period  of  trial  and 
sacrifice,  it  must  necessarily  become  a  better  nation. 
This  notion  is  based  on  the  assumption  that  spiritual 
effects  follow  from  material  causes ;  but  it  is  con- 
trary to  the  logic  of  history.  The  rapid  degener- 
ation of  the  Hebrew  nation  after  the  deliverance  of 
Jerusalem  ought  to  convince  us  that  this  pleasant 
supposition  is  a  dangerous  delusion.  If  the  nation 
is  to  derive  from  its  war  experiences  any  permanent 
gains  it  will  be  because  we  are  determined  to  accept 
the  moral  obligations  which  are  the  finest  oppor- 
tunities of  the  reconstruction  period. 

Righteousness  has  triumphed  over  organized  evil 
only  because  the  Allied  nations  determined  that  it 
should  prevail.  It  had  our  approval,  and  our  vote ; 
we  believed  in  the  right  and  sustained  it  with  intense 
moral  passion.  The  sacrificial  attitude  towards  the 
sacred  rights  of  humanity  was  a  mighty  confession 
of  faith  that  righteousness  is  the  law  of  nations  and 
the  standard  of  civilizations. 

The  visible  results  of  victory  are  obvious,  but  the 
moral  fruits  are  quite  intangible ;  they  belong  to  the 
realm  of  the  imponderables ;  and  the  precise  relation 
of  the  successful  nations  to  the  spiritual  reality  that 
has  made  their  triumph  an  assured  fact  appears  to 
many  uncertain  and  inchoate.  During  the  stress 
of  war  moral  phases  appear  fundamental;  but  when 
the  strain  is  removed,  there  is  danger  of  loss  of  vi- 
sion.    But  if  the  destruction  of  autocratic  Germany 


STATELY  MARCH  OF  PROVIDENCE      137 

was  in  the  last  analysis  due  to  the  inability  of  or- 
ganized materialism  to  compete  with  moral  reality ; 
if  Germany  failed  because  she  could  not  live  in  the 
consuming  fire,  which  conditions  all  life,  the  su- 
preme question  for  us  to  decide  is,  whether  we  can? 
Do  we  understand  the  spiritual  atmosphere  in  which 
we  are  obliged  to  live?  Are  we  aware  of  the  right- 
eous obligations  involved  in  the  terms  on  which  we 
have  been  permitted  to  survive?  And  are  we  will- 
ing, in  view  of  responsibilities  to  mankind,  to  live 
in  harmony  with  moral  reality,  now  that  we  are  fac- 
ing the  unromantic  but  immensely  important  tasks  of 
reconstruction?  That  will  depend  upon  whether  we 
are  ready  to  put  at  the  service  of  these  obligations 
the  same  unselfish  passions  and  sacrificial  enthusi- 
asms that  made  the  winning  of  the  war  one  of  the 
glorious  achievements  of  the  nation. 

Certain  errors  are  to  be  avoided ;  one  is  that  of 
confusing  religious  impressionism  with  a  genuine 
spiritual  change.  The  great  war,  involving  as  it 
did  a  fundamental  moral  question,  called  forth  the 
somnolent  idealism  of  the  people,  and  through  sacri- 
ficial experiences  immensely  increased  the  popular 
interest  in  religion ;  but  is  this  something  more  than 
the  old  belief  that  religion  is  an  expedient  in  the 
way  of  good  government?  We  have  fought  for 
righteousness  among  nations,  but  are  we  determined 
to  be  righteous  ourselves?  Unless  we  turn  these 
impressions    into    clear-cut    convictions    and    accept 


138  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

them  as  definite  canons  for  conduct,  we  shall  lose 
one  of  the  best  personal  opportunities  of  the  great 
struggle. 

We  must  be  particularly  on  our  guard  against 
reaction.  The  times  have  put  fear  into  many  hearts  ; 
but  it  is  not  the  constant  fear  of  a  God  who  is  being 
progressively  understood  and  loved,  so  much  as  an 
episodic  terror  of  suddenly  unmasked  and  unknown 
forces,  latent  in  human  nature,  and  breaking  out  in 
spectacular  manifestations  of  evil.  It  is  a  kind  of 
fear  of  man;  of  unimaginable  possibilities  for  our- 
selves; of  vast  social  changes  issuing  from  the  war 
— ■  of  labor  troubles,  commercial  rivalries  and  eco- 
nomic readjustments;  —  and  sometimes  too  a  sus- 
ceptibility to  the  awful  fires  of  moral  reality  that 
are  sweeping  through  the  world;  a  fear  of  an  un- 
known holiness  whose  searching  tests  no  man  can 
escape.  These  are  the  anxieties  that  assault  the 
mind  now  that  we  are  obliged  to  think  out  the  mean- 
ing of  the  great  struggle.  It  is  a  terribly  uncom- 
fortable world  we  are  living  in,  and  the  contempla- 
tion of  the  future  offers  little  solace. 

This  sense  of  undefined  fear,  this  terror  of  un- 
known forces,  tempts  men  to  rid  themselves  of  it  by 
some  form  of  forgetfulness.  Some  advocate  the 
adoption  of  the  German  method  of  social  organi- 
zation as  the  only  safeguard  of  civilization.  No 
matter  how  thoroughly  she  may  have  been  defeated 
the  political  traditions  of  Germany  will  remain  for 


STATELY  MARCH  OF  PROVIDENCE      139 

some  time  a  source  of  anxiety.  Autocracy  may  re- 
turn again,  and  if  so,  how  shall  we  meet  it?  Some 
will  suggest  a  similar  social  discipline,  others  will 
advocate  a  strong  military  program.  But  we 
must  remember  the  precise  effect  of  the  German 
method  on  the  personality  of  her  subjects.  It  turns 
men  into  things ;  it  destroys  the  moral  autonomy  of 
the  soul.  Such  a  conception  is  absolutely  opposed 
to  the  spirit  of  personal  initiative  upon  which  our 
social  order  is  based.  Political  scientists,  trained  in 
universities  organized  on  the  Teutonic  plan  will  be 
tempted  to  say  that  if  we  are  to  stand  up  against 
the  German  state  we  must  adopt  the  German  method. 
It  is  unthinkable.  The  Teuton  yoke  can  never  be 
imposed  on  the  neck  of  the  Anglo-Saxon. 

But  what  have  we  got  to  put  in  its  place?  The 
Teutonic  sj'stem,  bad  as  it  was,  had  the  great  merit 
of  developing  the  individual  into  an  efficient  unit 
in  social  organization ;  it  educated  him  in  public 
duties,  and  sustained  respect  for  constituted  au- 
thority. If  we  are  to  entrust  government  to  the 
free  spirit  of  the  peoples,  to  what  shall  we  look  for 
sanctions  and  upon  what  shall  we  depend  for  obedi- 
ence to  established  law? 

The  world  is  not  going  back  to  autocratic  sys- 
tems ;  its  supreme  task  will  be  to  render  more  effi- 
cient the  democratic  type ;  but  the  most  difficult 
duty  of  the  statesman  and  legislator  will  be  to  edu- 
cate the   citizen  in  his  public   responsibilities.     De- 


140  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

mocracy,  if  let  alone,  settles  upon  individual  rights 
rather  than  responsibilities.  The  social  passion  of 
men  is  now  running  far  ahead  of  social  discipline. 
The  tidal  forces  of  human  desire  were  by  the  war 
turned  into  unselfish  and  sacrificial  channels.  The 
magnificent  response  of  the  people  to  the  heavy  re- 
sponsibilities of  that  struggle,  is  an  encouraging 
sign  of  a  latent  capacity  for  further  development  in 
the  right  direction ;  only  the  question  remains :  are  we 
aware  that  the  discipline  of  the  citizen  is  even  more 
necessary  to  stable  government  during  a  period  of 
social  and  economic  readjustment,  than  it  was  dur- 
ing the  stress  of  war?  If  we  have  made  the  world 
safe  for  democracy,  is  not  our  present  task  to  make 
democracy  safe  for  the  world?  To  save  democracy 
from  itself? 

It  is  a  paramount  duty  of  the  United  States  to 
take  the  lead  in  this  educational  movement.  In, 
speaking  of  the  need  for  ordered  liberty  among  the 
recently  enfranchised  peoples  of  Central  Europe, 
President  Wilson  finely  said :  "  We  must  hold  the 
light  steady,  until  they  find  themselves."  If  the  fer- 
menting masses  in  the  war  devastated  countries, 
smarting  with  a  sense  of  age  long  wrong,  and  urged 
on  by  an  intensified  sense  of  individual  right  are  to 
learn  the  lessons  of  restraint  and  respect  for  con- 
stituted authority,  without  which  their  liberty  will 
prove  self-destructive,  they  must  be  made  to  see, 
not  through  the  medium  of  abstract  argument,  but 


STATELY  MARCH  OF  PROVIDENCE      141 

of  public  example,  how  a  great  democracy  conducts 
itself  in  the  face  of  equally  great  temptations.  That 
is  preeminently  our  present  task:  to  deserve  the  con- 
fidence and  to  inspire  the  emulation  of  other  peoples, 
for  whose  enfranchisement  we  are  jointly  respon- 
sible with  other  nations.  We  must  not  only  oppose 
all  reactionary  tendencies  that  would  revive  faith 
in  the  discarded  S3^stems,  but  resolve  to  provide  sanc- 
tions for  government  and  respect  for  constituted 
authority,  without  which  democracy  is  a  profound 
delusion. 

This,  in  my  judgment,  is  at  bottom  a  religious 
question;  it  is  a  question  of  the  real  beliefs  of  a 
people  about  themselves  and  about  God.  "  Where 
there  is  no  vision,  the  people  perish  " ;  they  perish 
because  they  cast  off  restraint.  Historically  speak- 
ing, where  there  have  been  no  beliefs  sufficiently 
powerful  to  affect  the  conduct  of  individuals,  peoples 
have  found  it  impossible  to  resist  the  destructive  in- 
fluences of  unregulated  desire;  that  is  why  even  the 
most  skeptical  philosophers  have  held  that  religion 
of  some  kind  was  essential  to  the  stability  of  society. 
It  was  the  lack  of  religious  beliefs  that  led  to  the 
downfall  of  Judah ;  and  it  will  be  our  duty  to  make 
them  vital  elements  in  protecting  the  nations  of  the 
world  from  the  reactionary  tendencies  of  the  times. 

This  constitutes  the  great  opportunity  of  the 
Christian  Church.  The  war  was  won  because  the 
moral   principles   of   the   Allied   nations   were   more 


14g  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

effective  than  the  organized  materialism  of  Germany ; 
and  these  moral  principles  had  their  source  and  sanc- 
tion in  the  Christian  religion.  Religious  principles 
will  be  even  more  important  in  the  period  of  read- 
justment. It  must  be  recognized  that  the  Christian 
stands  in  a  different  relation  to  society,  from  that  of 
the  ancient  Jew ;  for  whereas  the  Jew  was  a  member 
of  a  chosen  race,  engaged  in  a  work  of  preparation 
and  therefore  capable  of  living  in  a  state  of  de- 
tachment from  other  peoples,  the  Christian  is  by 
virtue  of  his  larger  responsibilities,  in  the  best  sense 
of  the  term  a  citizen  of  two  worlds ;  this  world  and  the 
next.  He  has  responsibilities  to  both.  During  the 
stress  of  the  war,  some  as  was  natural  were  too  much 
occupied  with  a  false  apocalyptic ;  dreaming  of  a 
speedy  end  of  the  world,  and  on  that  account  taking 
up  an  attitude  of  indifference  towards  public  duty. 
This  is  not  only  a  weak  position,  but  it  is  also  highly 
reprehensible ;  for  Christ  plainly  said  that  the 
Christian  was  the  light  of  this  world,  and  the  salt  of 
this  earth,  and  not  of  some  cloud  capped  heaven, 
where  there  is  abundance  of  light  and  salt  is  not 
needed. 

We  must  have  the  courage  to  assume  the  bolder 
attitude  and  frankly  accept  the  responsibility  of 
the  present.  It  will  be  our  duty  to  increase  the 
volume  of  spiritual  life  among  men ;  and  the  mission 
of  the  church  will  be  to  compel  belief  in  the  primacy 
and  present  importance  of  a  spiritual  view  of  the 


STATELY  MARCH  OF  PROVIDENCE      143 

world.  We  must  aid  in  consecrating  the  industrial 
democracy  that  has  issued  from  the  great  struggle, 
to  the  intellectual  and  spiritual  requirements  of  man- 
kind: a  tremendous  task,  truly,  but  one  worthy  of 
all  acceptance.  We  shall  best  do  this  if  we  can  estab- 
lish belief  in  the  Dynamic  Holiness  which  in  the  long 
run  must  determine  for  all  men  and  nations,  the 
nature  of  reality.  Such  a  conviction  will  furnish 
moral  sanctions  for  government,  stimulate  respect 
for  established  authority,  and  keep  the  sense  of  public 
duty  abreast  of  the  social  passions  of  the  time. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE    HERITAGE    OF    TYRE 

Isaiah  xxiii:  17-18:  "It  shall  come  to  pass  that  the  Lord 
will  visit  Tyre,  and  her  merchandise  shall  be  holiness  to  the 
Lord." 

In  order  to  understand  the  peculiar  religious  influ- 
ence of  the  Hebrew  people  it  is  necessary  to  pay 
some  attention  to  their  social  and  political  develop- 
ment; and  especially  to  consider  the  influence  of 
other  peoples  upon  their  conception  of  themselves. 
It  is  obvious  that  a  great  religious  mission  could 
not  be  carried  out  by  a  people  in  a  state  of  semi- 
barbarism  such  as  characterized  their  Egyptian  bond- 
age. Before  they  could  undertake  their  predestined 
task,  they  must  undergo  in  some  fashion  a  social 
and  political  transformation.  It  was  for  this  pur- 
pose that  they  were  brought  to  Palestine,  and  no 
better  country  could  have  been  selected. 

Situated  in  close  proximity  to  the  Nile  and  Meso- 
potamian  valleys  they  were  brought  into  immediate 
contact  with  world  movements  at  their  most  impres- 
sionable period.  The  great  trade  routes  passed 
through  their  borders,  and  from  their  mountain  sanc- 
tuaries, they  could  look  down  upon  world  movements. 

144 


THE  HERITAGE  OF  TYRE  145 

The  consequence  of  this  contact  with  other  nations 
was  the  beginning  of  a  civilizing  process. 

Civilization  is  a  flexible  term  but  it  usually  stands 
for  a  conception  of  social  life  larger  than  that  of  a 
family  or  a  tribe.  It  suggests  a  community  of  in- 
terests wherein  larger  groups  act  and  react  upon 
each  other  until  certain  ideas  develop ;  these  ideas 
become  traditions  which  are  expressed  in  the  laws 
of  the  land  and  form  the  basis  of  government ;  and 
from  which  there  finally  comes  a  consciousness  of 
race  —  an  ideal  for  the  whole  people  of  immense  in- 
direct  cultural  influence. 

This  is  what  we  see  going  on  in  Palestine  during 
the  eighth  and  seventh  centuries  before  Christ ;  — 
the  slow  and  orderly  development  of  a  loose  aggre- 
gation of  tribes  into  something  like  a  nation,  with 
a  powerful  racial  consciousness.  This  civilizing 
process  was  largely  influenced  by  contact  with  the 
life  and  manners  of  other  nations. 

The  religious  mission  of  the  people  was  the  de- 
cisive factor  in  their  development;  and  the  lead  in 
this  civilizing  process  was  taken  by  the  prophets, 
the  greatest  of  whom  appeared  in  the  most  critical 
period  of  Hebrew  life.  Their  mission  was  a  double 
one.  First  they  were  the  preachers  and  spiritual 
guides  of  the  people.  They  came  to  warn,  rebuke, 
instruct  and  to  console.  But  in  addition  to  this,  they 
were  charged  with  the  larger  task  of  interpreting 
world  forces  in  terms  of  Divine  providence;  of  ex- 


146  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

plaining  the  significance  of  those  transforming  and 
often  painful  contacts  between  the  chosen  people 
and  the  gentile  nations. 

While  most  of  them  excelled  in  this  kind  of  service, 
Isaiah  by  reason  of  his  extraordinary  talents  and 
the  singularly  propitious  times  in  which  he  lived, 
stands  preeminent  and  alone.  He  had  a  mind  of 
vast  range  and  perfectly  understood  the  significance 
of  world  movements.  The  two  forces  acting  most 
directly  upon  the  development  of  the  Hebrew  peoples 
were  war  and  commerce.  We  have  hitherto  been 
concerned  entirely  with  the  first  of  these  influences, 
due  to  the  advent  of  Assyria  in  Palestine.  In  this 
chapter  the  prophet  calls  our  attention  to  the  other 
force:  commerce,  as  represented  by  the  Phoenician, 
centering  in  the  maritime  activities  of  Tyre,  the 
great  seaport  of  Palestine. 

This  chapter  is  of  the  greatest  importance  to  us 
now,  since  the  most  serious  problem  confronting  us 
is  the  control  of  the  industrial  democracy  which  has 
issued  from  the  war.  For  more  than  a  century  the 
life  of  western  nations,  particularly  that  of  the 
United  States,  has  been  increasingly  influenced  by 
commerce  and  industrialism  ;  but  the  war  has  brought 
this  process  to  a  climax ;  and  our  supreme  and  all 
but  superhuman  task  will  be  to  consecrate  this  tre- 
mendous force  to  righteous  ends,  and  compel  it  by 
sheer  idealistic  strength  to  serve  the  needs  of  the  in- 
tellectual and  spiritual  man.     Such  a  feeling  seems 


THE  HERITAGE  OF  TYRE  147 

to  have  influenced  Isaiah ;  for  he  rightly  understood 
the  formative  influence  of  commerce  on  civilization ; 
he  was  keenly  alive  to  the  corrupting  eff'ect  of  Phoeni- 
cian enterprise,  but  he  shows  his  greatness  in  no 
finer  wa}^  than  that  he  was  able  to  see  the  immense 
value  of  this  force,  if  it  could  be  consecrated  to 
spiritual  uses.  This  is  the  significance  of  the  Oracle 
on  Tyre.  If  Judah  was  to  fulfil  her  spiritual  mis- 
sion she  must  not  only  overcome  Assyria,  but  find 
a  medium  which  could  carry  her  religious  ideas  to 
other  peoples.  Here  already  fitted  was  the  common 
carrier.  If  God  could  control  commerce,  Isaiah  saw 
the  world  at  His  feet. 

The  role  of  Phoenicia  was  determined  by  her  geo- 
graphical position.  If  you  will  look  at  a  map  of 
Palestine  you  will  see  a  narrow  strip  of  land  not 
wider  at  any  point  than  fifteen  miles,  running  from 
Mount  Carmel,  north  to  the  borders  of  Syria,  to 
the  extent  of  one  hundred  and  forty  miles.  To  the 
east  is  an  impassable  mountain  range ;  to  the  north 
and  south  outlets  only  for  trade  routes,  while  towards 
the  west  limited  only  by  the  imagination  lay  the  sea. 
Naturally  a  people  so  situated  would  be  compelled 
to  find  their  future  on  the  sea.  Their  location  pre- 
destined the  Phoenicians  to  become  a  nation  of  mer- 
chants and  traders,  and  nothing  else.  Their  land 
was  too  poor  in  natural  resources  and  too  small  in 
extent  to  become  either  an  agricultural  or  manufac- 
turing country ;  but  lying  midway  as  it  were  between 


148  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

Egypt  and  Mesopotamia ;  in  the  closest  possible  con- 
tact with  the  land  trade  routes  it  was  inevitable  that 
they  should  become  a  trading  people.  And  since 
the  chief  need  of  a  trading  nation  is  markets,  they 
naturally  sought  to  develop  these  in  the  lands  touched 
by  the  sea. 

The  Phoenicians  developed  the  art  of  navigation, 
learning  how  to  steer  by  the  stars,  and  sail  at  night 
out  of  sight  of  land;  and  their  ships  covered  the 
bounds  of  the  known  seas.  They  were  the  first  to 
navigate  the  Mediterranean ;  founded  colonies  in  the 
^gean  Isles ;  in  Greece  and  in  Northern  Africa  at 
Carthage ;  in  Sicily  and  Corsica ;  in  Spain  at  Tar- 
shish;  and  pressed  through  the  pillars  of  Hercules 
to  Western  Spain  and  as  far  north  as  Britain.  They 
had  trading  posts  in  every  known  country :  in  Egypt 
and  Mesopotamia  and  on  the  far  Indian  Ocean. 

It  is  difficult  to  overestimate  the  extent  and  variety 
of  Tyrian  commercial  activity.  No  wonder  the 
prophet's  imagination  took  fire  when  he  saw  this  tre- 
mendous force  lying  there  at  the  disposal  of  religion. 
The  flag  of  the  Hudson  Bay  Company  has  on  it  the 
letters  H.  B.  C.  which  are  interpreted  by  the  natives 
as  meaning  "  Here  before  Christ."  It  is  histori- 
cally true  that  religious  influence  has  usually  fol- 
lowed the  path  opened  for  it  by  commerce ;  the  mis- 
sionary comes  after  the  man  of  business. 

The  Oracle  on  Tyre  seems  to  have  been  called 
forth  by  the  danger  of  its  extinction  through  As- 


THE  HERITAGE  OF  TYRE  149 

Syrian  conquests.  The  genius  of  Assyria  was  purely 
destructive ;  that  Isaiah  well  understood ;  and  when  he 
saw  the  Phoenician  influence,  bad  as  it  was,  at  the 
mercy  of  this  destructive  power,  he  came  to  the  con- 
clusion that  God  would  not  permit  the  dispersion 
of  a  people  whose  activities  were  unconsciously  of 
immense  value  to  the  spread  of  religion  and  civili- 
zation. He  saw  of  course  that  Assyria  would  take 
Tyre;  but  he  confidently  predicted  her  restoration; 
and  although  she  would  continue  to  practise  her 
arts  —  prostituting  her  soul  for  worldly  gain  —  God 
proposed  to  use  her  for  missionary  purposes.  The 
Lord  would  visit  Tyre,  and  her  merchandise  would 
become  holiness  unto  Him.  She  would  continue  to 
be  an  unwilling  servant,  unaware  of  the  larger  im- 
plications of  her  history ;  but  God  designed  to  make 
her  influence  a  blessing  to  mankind. 

A  prediction  of  such  large  comprehensiveness  was 
bound  to  meet  with  the  vindication  of  history.  Phoe- 
nicia remained  to  the  end  a  nation  of  traders  and 
middlemen  — "  sea  peddlers,"  and  nothing  more ;  she 
left  no  abiding  deposit  in  the  culture  or  civilization 
of  the  world  of  her  own  creation;  she  was  of  no 
more  consequence  than  a  train  of  cars,  vital  as  a 
common  carrier,  but  of  herself  material,  a  thing  and 
nothing  more;  yet  in  the  great  days  that  followed, 
after  the  Babylonian  exile,  and  especially  when  Alex- 
ander the  Great  opened  the  east  to  the  west,  the 
trade  routes  and  commercial  connections  established 


150  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

by  Phoenicia  became  the  arteries  through  which  the 
rich  red  blood  of  new  ideas  and  transforming  forces 
passed  swiftly  over  the  world.  Phoenicia  was  the 
first  to  make  the  world  smaller;  to  open  communi- 
cations between  remote  nations,  to  convey  the  edu- 
cational and  spiritualizing  influences  of  different 
peoples  to  each  other,  and  make  them  the  common 
possession  of  the  race.  As  such  she  was  a  civil- 
izing influence  of  vast  import,  not  on  account  of 
anything  she  contributed  of  herself,  but  because  she 
made  accessible  what  other  peoples  had ;  above  all  she 
opened  the  way  for  the  spread  of  religion,  and  in 
spite  of  herself  she  became  a  missionary  of  the  Lord. 
Her  commerce  became  holiness  unto  God;  and  from 
her  blind,  molelike  striving  after  worldly  gain,  the 
world  derived  vast  spiritual  advantages. 

We  are  so  accustomed  to  think  of  the  Hebrews 
as  a  commercial  people  that  we  overlook  the  fact 
that  in  Isaiah's  time  commercial  pursuits  were  by 
them  regarded  with  a  certain  amount  of  aversion. 
This  was  the  fixed  conviction  of  the  devout.  They 
looked  upon  Phoenicia  as  a  harlot  among  nations, 
ready  to  sell  herself  for  hire.  Isaiah  was  quite  aware 
of  this  but  it  was  due  to  his  spiritual  genius  that 
he  could  look  beyond  the  parochialism  of  his  time 
to  see  in  this  force,  admittedly  evil,  an  influence  if 
consecrated  that  would  be  of  great  service  to  spiritual 
Israel.  This  is  the  significance  of  the  Oracle  on 
Tyre.     It  suggests  the  duty  of  trying  to  understand 


THE  HERITAGE  OF  TYRE  151 

the  force  of  commerce ;  it  must  neither  be  destroyed, 
nor  wholly  condemned,  but  used  and  consecrated 
to  high  ministries  for  the  soul. 

The  Christian  people  of  our  day  have  been  accus- 
tomed to  an  undiscriminating  condemnation  of  com- 
merce. If  one  listen  to  the  preacher  in  his  Sabbath- 
day  mood  one  would  suppose  that  nothing  could  be 
more  evil  or  dangerous.  The  reason  for  this  is 
that  the  commercial  spirit,  if  left  to  itself,  soon  de- 
generates into  pure  materialism;  but  the  responsi- 
bility felt  by  Isaiah  is  precisely  the  one  we  should 
awake  to,  namely  to  see  beyond  condemnation  to 
utility.  Commerce  is  a  dangerous,  but  useful  force ; 
the  Christian  cannot  first  make  the  world  to  fit  his 
mission,  but  he  must  take  it  as  he  finds  it  and  try 
to  improve  it;  and  we  may  as  well  face  the  fact  that 
the  sort  of  world  we  are  going  to  live  in  is  one  that 
is  to  be  increasingly  occupied  with  commercial  mat- 
ters. 

Our  nation,  idealistic  as  it  is,  has  largely  been  de- 
veloped by  the  commercial  spirit.  This  was  due  in 
part  to  our  geographical  position  and  in  part  to  the 
native  energy  of  our  people.  Situated  in  a  land 
of  enormous  natural  resources,  midway  between  Euro- 
pean and  Oriental  peoples,  it  was  predestined  that  we 
should  become  a  commercial  nation.  Add  to  this 
the  native  trading  propensity  of  the  people,  the  re- 
sourcefulness, energy  and  audacity  of  the  individual 
—  the   splendid   initiative   encouraged   by   our   free 


152  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

institutions  and  the  additional  advantage  of  a  long 
peace  and  comparative  freedom  from  internal  dis- 
turbances —  moving  towards  the  future  with  few 
hampering  traditions,  and  you  have  the  reason  why 
there  should  have  been  such  a  rapid  industrial  de- 
velopment in  this  country.  All  these  advantages 
have  made  us  masters  of  the  material  world,  and 
developed  to  an  alarming  degree  business  aspirations 
and  incidentally  our  ideals  of  life. 

Industrial  expansion  has  been  enormously  acceler- 
ated in  the  reconstruction  period,  not  only  by  the 
extraordinary  economic  necessities  of  the  war  de- 
vastated countries,  but  also  because  the  great 
struggle  increased  to  an  astonishing  degree  the 
wants  and  desires  of  the  masses.  The  intellectual, 
moral  and  aesthetic  requirements  of  the  world 
have  been  vastly  augmented ;  and  life  for  every- 
body is  going  to  be  more  expensive,  and  unless 
stabilized  by  access  to  the  resources  of  the  spirit, 
it  is  going  to  be  more  feverish,  discontented, 
and  dangerous.  Our  nation  faces  a  problem  such 
as  has  not  hitherto  confronted  it:  how  are  we 
going  to  meet  it?  Are  we  going  to  return  to 
the  old  materialistic  ambitions  which  influenced 
us  before  the  war:  fighting  each  other  with  ruth- 
less competition,  and  organizing  our  resources  solely 
with  regard  to  the  animal  necessities  of  life?  Are 
we  to  sacrifice  the  idealistic  gains  of  the  war  —  the 
intellectual   and  moral   awakening  due  to  patriotic 


THE  HERITAGE  OF  TYRE  153 

devotion  —  for  the  sake  of  Mammon  worship?  If 
so,  the  war  is  well  lost.  But  if  we  are  to  avoid  a 
return  to  tlie  old  way  of  living  we  must  learn  how 
to  consecrate  the  augmented  commercial  activities 
of  the  time  to  a  spiritual  end.  We  shall  need 
the  courage  and  confidence  of  Isaiah,  reenforced 
at  all  points  by  a  sturdy  Christian  faith.  It  is  a 
great  task,  and  the  time  is  calling  loudly  for  great 
men  to  meet  it.  But  its  complete  solution  will  not 
be  found  by  political  scientists,  statesmen,  labor 
leaders  or  big  business  men;  the  unselfish  labors  of 
all  these  will  be  required;  we  shall  need  in  addition 
prophets  —  pathfinders  of  the  soul  —  who  shall  be 
able  to  open  the  way  to  life's  Supreme  Reality,  with- 
out belief  in  which  no  adequate  solution  is  possible. 

The  acceptance  of  this  proposition  will  not  be 
easy,  for  it  calls  upon  us  to  revise  our  conception  of 
religion,  it  urges  us  to  a  searching  examination  of 
our  public  and  private  morality.  Perhaps  we  shall 
be  able  to  do  so,  however,  if  we  consider  the  danger 
of  the  commercial  spirit,  estimate  its  present  in- 
fluence on  public  opinion,  and  then  try  to  define  our 
relation  to  it. 

The  danger  of  the  commercial  spirit  is,  as  Isaiah 
points  out,  that  it  tests  everything  by  profit  and 
loss.  Its  standards  of  value  are  of  themselves  ma- 
terial. The  Tyrians  were  merchants  and  traders, 
and  nothing  else.  They  traveled  about  the  ancient 
world  with  packs   on   their  backs,   taking   as   little 


154  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

interest  in  the  higher  aspirations  of  the  people  with 
whom  they  traded  as  a  wandering  peddler.  They 
manufactured  nothing,  they  created  nothing  artis- 
tic. They  seem  to  have  had  no  higher  aim  than  to 
"  buy  cheap  and  sell  dear,"  the  creed  of  Trimal- 
chio,  the  story  of  whose  clownish  antics  forms  the 
most  amusing  pages  of  the  Satyricon  of  Petronius. 
They  developed  markets  in  the  west  for  the  products 
of  the  east  by  stimulating  desire  for  these  things  ; 
they  were  the  common  carriers  of  the  world's  wealth, 
but  they  tested  the  value  of  everything,  even  of  re- 
ligion (for  they  bought  and  sold  gods  and  religions 
too),  by  profit  and  loss.  Such  a  pursuit  was  bound 
to  destroy  what  little  idealism  they  had;  for  their 
business  ambitions  brought  them  in  contact  with 
neither  moral  nor  spiritual  aspirations ;  and  so  they 
soon  became  for  all  intents  and  purposes  thoroughly 
material.  They  looked  like  money  and  talked  of 
money,  and  money  became  their  god. 

Has  not  this  been  one  of  the  dangers  inseparable 
from  our  rapid  industrial  development:  this  passion 
for  gain,  this  limitation  of  standards  of  value  to 
profit  and  loss?  As  George  Adam  Smith  remarks, 
the  artist,  the  teacher  or  even  the  artisan  has  other 
interests  in  life  than  those  associated  with  material 
wealth;  their  callings  furnish  them  with  certain 
ideal  aims,  and  the  satisfaction  of  the  creative  im- 
pulse is  often  the  most  important.  It  is  not  so 
with  the  merchant  or  trader ;  his  standard  in  business 


THE  HERITAGE  OF  TYRE  155 

is  profit  and  loss ;  and  unless  he  can  bring  to  his 
calling  ideals  of  one  sort  or  another,  which  must 
be  formed  in  other  and  higher  spheres,  it  is  almost 
impossible  to  resist  the  corrupting  influences  of  trade. 

So  far  the  American  people  have  succeeded  in 
checking  this  evil  tendency;  it  is  because  we  are  at 
heart  an  idealistic  nation.  Still  the  unconsecrated 
commercialism  of  the  time  has  had  a  decidedly  vicious 
effect  on  public  opinion.  There  are  many  who  value 
everything  in  terms  of  money;  they  do  not  believe 
that  anybody  can  be  influenced  by  any  other  standard 
than  personal  gain,  and  regard  those  who  profess 
to  be  idealists  either  as  fanatics  or  hypocrites. 
This  is  the  belief  of  all  those  who  accept  the  standard : 
business  is  business.  If  so,  then  as  Sidney  Lanier 
says :     "  It  is  only  war  grown  miserly." 

Such  a  spirit  influences  the  world  as  an  atmos- 
phere ;  we  live  in  it  at  least  six  days  a  week,  and  it 
is  difficult  to  escape  its  poisonous  eff'ects,  unless  we 
bring  principles  and  ideals,  formed  in  other  and 
higher  regions  to  bear  upon  it ;  and  in  spite  of  our 
native  idealism,  it  is  rather  discouraging  to  turn 
to  the  general  opinions  of  life  that  prevail  among  the 
practical  people.  For  instance  we  hear  much  of  the 
platitude  that  "  honesty  is  the  best  policy  "  which 
to  most  men  means  simply  that  honesty  is  better 
than  dishonesty  because  it  pays  better.  A  man  who 
has  no  higher  aim  than  this  will  become  dishonest, 
so  soon  as  it  becomes  more  profitable.     Or  take  the 


166  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

phrase :  "  truth  in  advertising  "  which,  unless  one  de- 
fine the  terms  may  only  mean  that  it  pays  in  the  long 
run  to  tell  the  truth.  Such  a  man  cannot  command 
the  confidence  of  his  business  associates  on  these 
terms  simply  because  his  morality  is  founded,  not  on 
any  fixed  principles  of  an  ethical  nature,  but  en- 
tirely on  unstable  external  conditions ;  and  if  these 
conditions  should  change  at  any  time,  he  would  in 
all  probability  act  on  another  principle. 

This  Phcenician  morality  is  as  untrustworthy  to- 
day as  it  was  centuries  ago,  and  yet  if  we  are  to  be- 
lieve Benjamin  Kidd,  it  has  had  a  decided  influence 
on  our  higher  ethical  judgments.  For  instance  dur- 
ing the  past  fifty  years  the  civilized  nations  have  been 
condemning  war ;  have  sought  by  means  of  courts  of 
arbitration  to  render  it  impossible ;  and  yet  the  usual 
reason  given  was  not  that  war  is  wrong  in  principle, 
but  that  it  is  inexpedient,  on  the  ground  that  it  is 
wasteful  and  very  expensive.  It  does  not  pay.  Ger- 
many seems  to  have  reasoned  in  this  fashion  about  the 
probable  attitude  of  Belgium,  Great  Britain  and 
America  towards  her  scheme  of  world  dominion. 
She  did  not  believe  that  these  nations  would  expose 
themselves  to  such  vast  material  waste,  for  so  in- 
tangible a  thing  as  national  honor.  This  intangible 
ideal  something  we  call  honor  —  faith  among  nations 
and  such  like  conceptions  —  from  the  point  of  view 
of  materialism  appear  to  be  delusions.  The  im- 
mense moral  gains  of  the  war  have  come  from  a  dis- 


THE  HERITAGE  OF  TYRE  157 

covery  that  we  are  at  heart  idealistic,  that  we  do 
believe  in  the  imponderables ;  and  so  far  we  have  been 
able  to  escape  the  blight  of  commercialism. 

Still  there  is  little  reason  for  optimism  because 
there  were  many  Phoenicians  among  the  patriots 
during  the  war,  who  looked  at  it  entirely  from  the 
point  of  view  of  personal  profit.  There  were  some 
whose  souls  were  dead  to  idealism  and  sacrifice: 
profiteers  in  capital  and  in  labor,  creatures  of  a  ma- 
terialistic age.  Think  of  the  output  of  shoddy 
goods,  the  gouging  and  grinding  that  went  on  all 
over  the  land,  of  the  people  who  tried  to  turn  the 
misfortunes  of  the  world  to  personal  profit,  and 
nothing  else;  and  then  compare  with  this  the  splen- 
did loyalty,  and  unselfish  idealism  of  the  greater 
part  of  the  nation,  and  you  will  see  how  ugly  and 
indefensible  this  spirit  is.  No  wonder  Isaiah  called 
Tyre  a  harlot,  ready  to  barter  everything  she  had, 
even  honor,  for  gain.  Consider  too  the  hideous  ugli- 
ness of  modern  civilization,  these  hot,  foul,  noisy 
cities,  corrupters  of  the  imagination,  destroyers  of 
the  souls  of  men  through  crass  utilitarianism;  this 
paralysis  of  the  finer  mental  powers  through  a  com- 
mercialized conception  of  education,  and  you  will 
see  a  further  effect  of  this  spirit  when  uncontrolled 
by  principles  of  an  idealistic  sort. 

The  truth  is  that  modern  industrialism  has  been 
founded  upon  the  law  of  the  survival  of  the  fittest. 
It  was  the  ruling  principle  of  Germany  in  the  great 


158  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

war.  She  despised  small  nations,  and  reasoned  that 
their  destruction  or  absorption  into  the  Germanic 
empire  was  fully  justified  on  the  ground  that  the 
strongest  have  a  right  to  survive.  It  has  been 
too  the  principle  upon  which  modern  capitalism  and 
organized  labor  have  founded  their  hopes.  If  big 
business  could  combine,  even  through  ruthless  dis- 
regard of  the  rights  of  small  concerns,  its  action 
was  justified  on  the  ground  of  a  larger  public  serv- 
ice ;  if  labor  could  organize  in  such  a  way  as  to  get 
more  for  its  product  than  it  was  entitled  to,  its 
success  fully  justified  the  means  —  thus  have  men 
reasoned  about  government,  business  and  labor,  and 
brought  the  civilization  of  the  twentieth  century  al- 
most to  destruction. 

This  is  the  danger  that  confronts  us  in  the  re- 
construction period.  Shall  society  return  to  the  old 
Phoenician  morality;  this  tendency  to  act  on  the 
supposition  that  there  are  no  higher  interests  in  life 
than  those  of  personal,  material  gain?  Or  shall 
we  make  the  unselfish  and  sacrificial  ideals  called 
forth  by  the  war  the  law  of  public  and  private  ac- 
tion, now  that  the  war  is  over.?  This  will  depend 
upon  our  beliefs  about  ourselves,  about  the  rights 
and  duties  of  mankind,  and  particularly  about  our 
relation  to  God. 

But  here  too  we  see  the  evil  influence  of  commer- 
cialism,  on  our  estimate  of  religion.     The  general 


THE  HERITAGE  OF  TYRE  159 

opinion  about  religion,  intensified  by  the  great 
struggle,  is  that  it  is  a  very  good  thing  to  have  in 
the  community.  It  makes  democracy  safe  for  the 
world;  it  furnishes  sanctions  for  government,  and 
encourages  respect  for  constituted  authority ;  it  puts 
the  fear  of  God  into  the  rich  man's  heart,  and 
makes  the  workman  content  with  his  wage.  This  is 
tlie  common  view  of  religion  as  an  expedient. 

But  while  many  are  disposed  to  admit  that  re- 
ligion has  a  utilitarian  value,  they  act  on  the  sup- 
position that  it  makes  very  little  difference  what 
the  private  individual  believes ;  and  this  view  is  com- 
mon among  those  who  are  influenced  by  the  com- 
mercial spirit  of  the  time.  But  if  the  molders  of 
public  opinion  —  newspaper  and  magazine  editors, 
statesmen  and  law  makers  —  are  to  hold  no  higher 
view  than  this,  they  occupy,  as  little  as  they  know 
it,  precisely  the  position  of  those  foolish  statesmen 
and  false  teachers  so  severely  condemned  by  the  true 
prophets  of  God ;  for  should  you  be  able  to  convince 
them  that  some  other  expedient  for  stabilizing  so- 
ciety could  be  found,  they  would  be  ready  to  adopt 
it  simply  because  it  worked:  that  is,  because  it  paid. 
Such  men  are  not  the  true  friends  of  humanity. 
We  cannot  trust  the  idealism  of  America,  so  greatly 
quickened  by  the  war,  to  unsafe  guides ;  it  is  too 
precious,  yet,  for  lack  of  reasonable  religious  sup- 
ports,  too   unstable   to  be   committed   to   unreliable 


160  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

leaders;  it  must  be  worked  into  worthy  forms  of 
public  service  through  the  influence  of  definite  re- 
ligious beliefs. 

It  has  been  customary  to  maintain  that  it  matters 
little  what  one  believes  about  God;  but  I  think  the 
great  war  has  convinced  us  that  it  does.  The  Turk 
believed  in  God  and  yet  on  that  account  was  able 
to  murder  more  than  a  million  and  a  half  of  innocent 
people.  Could  this  have  happened  in  a  Christian 
land?  Why  were  the  Allies  able  through  four  long 
years  of  hardship,  suffering  and  death  to  struggle 
with  Germany  until  their  cause  was  won  but  that 
they  believed  in  the  sovereignty  of  right,  they  hated 
wrong,  and  they  derived  their  moral  passion  from 
their  beliefs  about  God?  Could  such  a  war  have  been 
originated  in  a  country  influenced  by  the  ethical  and 
religious  standards  prevailing  among  the  Allied 
peoples?  It  is  unthinkable.  Germany  began  the 
war  because  of  certain  beliefs  about  God;  we  won  it 
because  we  too  had  other  and  diff*erent  beliefs.  The 
German  god  was  as  little  like  the  God  of  Jesus 
Christ  as  the  brutal  Assyrian  deities  resembled  the 
God  of  Isaiah. 

If  the  winning  of  the  war  has  been  a  triumph  of 
righteousness,  if  Germany  has  coUapsed  because  she 
could  not  live  in  the  fires  of  holy  reality  that  con- 
dition the  life  of  men  and  nations:  how  shall  we 
escape  in  the  reconstruction  period  if  we  neglect 
so  great  salvation?     Can  we  dwell  in  the  midst  of 


THE  HERITAGE  OF  TYRE  161 

the  devouring  fire?  Can  we  survive  in  the  everlast- 
ing burnings?  That  will  depend  upon  the  effective- 
ness of  our  beliefs  in  controlling  and  consecrating 
the  great  industrial  movement  that  has  issued  from 
the  struggle.  The  hope  of  the  future  is  with 
Christian  peoples. 

We  must  consecrate  the  forces  of  civilization  to 
the  spread  of  true  religion.  This  will  be  done 
first  of  all  by  preaching  the  saving  gospel  of  Jesus 
Christ ;  but  back  of  this  is  something  more  important. 
There  must  be  the  testimony  of  the  life  —  the  ac- 
tual application  of  God's  will  to  the  totality  of  in- 
fluence. This  means  that  all  double  standards  of 
morality  must  disappear.  The  world  has  had  enough 
of  the  double  standard  hypothesis  in  the  immoral 
principles  of  the  German  state.  As  men  conduct 
themselves  in  private  life,  so  must  they  behave  in 
public  affairs.  Christian  ethics  must  become  the 
standard  of  international  relations ;  the  basis  of 
ordered  liberty  among  peoples.  Such  an  ideal  mor- 
ality based  on  the  sound  beliefs  of  the  individual 
must  become  the  law  for  business  combinations  and 
labor  organizations,  until  the  whole  industrial  move- 
ment is  inspired  by  the  spirit  of  brotherhood  and 
made  to  serve  the  higher  necessities  of  the  soul. 

We  have  seen  what  commerce  did  in  the  ancient 
world  for  the  spread  of  culture,  civilization  and  re- 
ligion. The  merchandise  of  Tyre  became  holiness 
unto  the  Lord.     What  it  did  then,  it  can  do  now. 


162  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

It  was  a  potent  force  in  aid  of  missionary  enter- 
prise; Christianity  has  always  followed  the  trade 
routes  of  the  world,  and  it  will  continue  to  do  so, 
until  the  glory  of  the  Lord  shall  cover  the  earth, 
as  the  waters  cover  the  sea. 

Great  believers  —  men  of  the  single  standard  for 
all  private  and  public  relations  —  have  always  been 
the  light  of  the  world,  the  salt  of  the  earth.  They 
are  the  hope  of  the  democracy  that  is  spreading  over 
the  world ;  and  their  influence  upon  society  and  gov- 
ernment has  been  the  direct  outcome  of  personal 
loyalty  to  Jesus  Christ  as  Lord  and  Savior;  for 
through  Him  alone  has  mankind  access  unto  the 
Parent  Source  of  Reality,  to  live  in  harmony  with 
which  is  the  safeguard  of  human  rights,  and  the 
sanction  of  human  institutions. 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE    THREE    QUESTIONS 

Isaiah  xxxiii:  30-22:  "Look  upon  Zion,  the  city  of  our  so- 
lemnities :  thine  eyes  shall  see  Jerusalem  a  quiet  habitation.  .  .  . 
There  the  glorious  Lord  shall  be  unto  us  a  place  of  broad 
rivers  and  streams.  .  .  .  For  the  Lord  is  our  judge,  the  Lord  is 
our  lawgiver,  the  Lord  is  our  king;  He  will  save  us." 

This  beautiful  prediction  is  the  essence  of  Isaiah's 
message.  One  of  the  purposes  of  his  long  ministry 
was  the  consolation  and  encouragement  of  the  de- 
vout people  who  were  called  upon  to  endure  great 
hardships  in  the  struggle  of  Judah  with  Assyria. 
What  they  required  as  a  basis  of  steadfast  faith  was 
some  assurance  that  their  holy  city  was  inviolate; 
for  should  it  be  taken  and  the  population  scattered 
over  Mesopotamia,  there  appeared  no  possible  way 
of  realizing  their  spiritual  destiny.  Was  it  to  hap- 
pen to  them  as  it  had  happened  to  northern  Israel? 
Isaiah  answered  this  reasonable  question  with  the 
doctrine  of  inviolability.  God  had  laid  in  Zion, 
a  chief  cornerstone,  elect,  tried,  and  precious.  It 
was  impossible  at  this  time  for  Assyria  to  take  Jeru- 
salem, because  the  spiritual  future  of  the  race  de- 
pended on  the  political  autonomy  of  the  chosen  peo- 
ple.    This  prediction  was  fulfilled  by  the  great  de- 

163 


164  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

liverance.  When  Sennacherib  abandoned  the  siege 
of  the  city,  and  retired  from  Palestine  at  the  close  of 
the  eighth  century,  Jerusalem  became  a  quiet  habi- 
tation ;  and  the  spiritual  element  in  the  nation  was 
given  an  opportunity  of  reflecting  on  other  signifi- 
cant features  of  the  prophet's  teaching. 

For  some  years  before  the  deliverance  of  the  city, 
Isaiah  had  been  speaking  of  a  time  coming,  it  might 
be  soon  or  late,  when  God  would  give  Judah  a  great 
spiritual  leader,  who  should  deliver  them  from  all 
their  enemies.  In  the  darkest  hour  of  their  history 
he  had  confidently  predicted  that  Jerusalem  would 
become  a  quiet  habitation;  the  Lord  Himself  would 
be  unto  them  a  place  of  broad  rivers  and  streams, 
their  judge,  lawgiver,  and  king.  Above  all  things 
He  would  become  their  deliverer. 

Promises  of  this  kind  are  frequently  found  in  the 
Old  Testament  prophets  ;  they  are  Messianic  in  char- 
acter because  they  look  forward  to  the  coming  of 
Christ.  A  certain  degree  of  caution,  however,  is 
required  for  their  interpretation.  The  prophets 
usually  speak  of  the  Messiah  in  vague  and  general 
terms ;  His  features  are  outlined  in  a  few  bold  strokes 
on  the  picturesque  and  mobile  background  of  their 
own  times;  and  to  do  them  justice  we  must  avoid 
the  habit  of  making  them  teach  too  much.  We  must 
not  read  into  the  Old  Testament  teaching  the 
clearly  defined  revelations  of  the  New  Testament. 
Where    such   a   mistake   is   made   these   prophecies, 


THE  THREE  QUESTIONS  165 

otherwise  so  suggestive  and  valuable,  are  rendered 
wholly  artificial  and  unconvincing.  Having  the 
knowledge  of  the  historic  Christ,  it  is  easy  to  in- 
terpret prophecy  in  terms  of  this  larger  experience ; 
still  we  must  try  to  do  what  is  almost  impossible: 
put  ourselves  in  place  of  the  prophets,  who  were 
looking  down  the  centuries  and  seeking  as  best  they 
could  to  use  the  materials  at  hand  for  the  encourage- 
ment of  the  people  of  their  own  age.  We  shall  not 
always  find  there  what  we  should  like  to  see,  but  at 
least  we  shall  be  able  to  grasp  the  significance  of 
what  these  prophecies  mean. 

Messianic  prophecies  fall  into  three  groups :  some 
are  concerned  only  with  the  permanence  of  the  Divine 
kingdom.  Isaiah's  reference  to  the  inviolability  of 
Jerusalem  is  an  example  of  that ;  a  declaration  of 
God's  purpose  to  safeguard  the  chosen  people  until 
they  could  fulfil  their  mission  and  give  Christi- 
anity^ to  the  world.  A  second  group  is  occupied 
with  the  saving  influence  of  God's  people  on  other 
nations,  looking  forward  to  the  calling  of  the  Gen- 
tiles. A  third  group,  by  far  the  most  interesting, 
deals  with  Messianic  prophecy  from  a  personal 
point  of  view.  It  describes  the  birth,  growth,  char- 
acter and  power  of  a  great  personality;  and  it  is 
to  prophecies  of  this  sort  that  we  turn,  when  we 
desire  to  know  how  the  faith  of  the  Jew  was  shaped 
up  to  receive  and  understand  the  advent  of  Jesus 
Christ. 


166  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

Messianic  prophecy  of  a  personal  sort  is  char- 
acteristic of  Isaiah's  teaching.  This  teaching  is 
necessarily  sketchy,  often  hurriedly  spoken  to  his  in- 
timate disciples  in  the  midst  of  more  pressing  mat- 
ters. Apparently  it  was  not  intended  for  the  rulers 
or  the  multitude,  but  only  for  those  whose  faith 
was  ready  to  receive  it.  It  is  therefore  private 
teaching.  He  presents  his  ideas  in  the  form  of  por- 
traits —  sketched  on  time's  horizon  like  Rembrandt 
etchings  —  a  few  bold  strokes  and  much  left  to  the 
imagination,  and  they  must  have  powerfully 
moved  the  sensibility  of  the  newly  aroused  people. 
The  prophet's  conceptions  appear  to  have  come 
to  him  in  the  form  of  visions ;  and  two  things, 
as  F.  S.  Oliver  has  pointed  out  are  essential 
to  the  power  of  a  vision :  "  some  exceptional  gift 
of  presentment  in  the  seer,  and  an  eager  pre- 
disposition on  the  part  of  men."  A  genuine  prophet 
is  not  one  who  sees  a  thing  for  the  first  time, 
but  one  who  sees  clearly  what  many  are  seeing  dimly. 
It  is  his  business  to  fully  open  the  eyes,  to  teach 
the  stammering  tongue  to  speak  plainly ;  to  strip  the 
wrappings  of  tradition  from  the  face  of  truth,  that 
men  may  see  it  whole.  And  if  we  are  to  realize 
the  power  and  beauty  of  Isaiah's  predictions  con- 
cerning the  Messiah,  we  must  dismiss  at  once  the 
popular  notion  of  some  magic  gift  of  insight  into 
far  distant  futures,  and  seek  the  true  understanding 
in  the  needs  and  spiritual  expectancy  of  the  godly 


THE  THREE  QUESTIONS  167 

people  of  his  time.  For  as  Oliver  finely  says :  "  the 
fabric  of  a  vision  which  worketh  great  marvels  is 
the  experience  of  common  men." 

What  then  was  the  fabric  of  Isaiah's  Messianic 
vision?  Out  of  what  materials  was  it  woven?  You 
will  find  the  elements  partly  in  his  own  experience, 
and  partly  in  the  spiritual  expectancy  of  the  na- 
tion ;  and  it  is  not  difficult  to  understand  why  the 
conscious  requirements  of  the  people  should  prove 
a  decisive  factor.  Their  provisional  need,  in  the 
days  of  political  and  social  disorders,  growing  out  of 
the  Assyrian  invasion  was  assurance  of  Jerusalem's 
inviolability;  but  the  political  independence  of  the 
city  was  a  means  only  for  realizing  a  spiritual  mis- 
sion. The  devout  people  knew  very  well  that  with- 
out this  they  could  never  fulfil  their  destiny ;  and 
it  was  inevitable  that  satisfaction  in  the  security  of 
the  city  should  depend  in  great  measure  on  their 
confidence  in  the  national  leaders.  We  have  seen 
how  little  reason  they  had  for  trusting  their  rulers. 
The  nation  was  drifting  rapidly  towards  complete 
secularization,  and  their  keen  disappointment  natu- 
rally raised  the  question :  How  can  we  fulfil  our 
mission  unless  God  gives  us  a  man  whom  we  can 
follow  and  trust?  This  made  the  personal  aspect 
of  Messianic  prophecy  intensely  important ;  and  this 
is  why  Isaiah  took  the  opportunity  of  speaking  of 
the  Messiah  in  such  terms  as  to  satisfy  this  expec- 
tation. 


168  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

But  a  very  definite  personal  need  had  grown  up 
in  the  religious  experience  of  the  people:  a  need  for 
a  closer  touch  with  God,  a  desire  to  be  assured  that 
He  in  some  experimental  fashion  shared  their  afflic- 
tions; so  that  their  interest  in  the  Messiah  tended 
to  center  in  their  personal  needs.  No  promise  of 
safeguarding  their  spiritual  destiny  could  satisfy 
their  faith  unless  at  the  same  time  it  could  meet 
the  urgent  and  growing  necessities  of  their  souls. 

They  began  to  ask  questions,  first  of  each  other, 
and  then  of  their  prophet,  and  these  questions  would 
finally  resolve  themselves  into  three,  touching  Mes- 
siah's experience,  character,  and  power. 

The  first  question  touched  the  experience  of  the 
Messiah :  Would  He  be  like  them,  identified  through 
experience  and  race  relationships  with  their  strug- 
gling life,  so  that  from  the  first  He  would  become  a 
sympathetic  and  discriminating  friend?  The  second 
question  had  to  do  with  His  character:  was  He  able 
to  live  in  the  devouring  fire  of  holiness,  which  they 
had  been  taught  to  regard  as  the  sole  condition  of 
reality  for  men  and  nations  and  things?  The  third 
question  would  concern  itself  with  His  power,  and 
the  mode  of  its  operation:  would  He  be  able  to  pro- 
tect, shelter  and  strengthen  those  that  were  weak  and 
ineffective  until  they  had  grown  strong,  and  would 
they  be  able  through  His  fellowship  to  find  a  stand- 
ard by  which  to  test  life,  to  sift  out  the  true  from  the 
false,  and  to  know  the  real  from  the  unreal? 


THE  THREE  QUESTIONS  169 

These  were  questions  which  Isaiah  found  in  the 
hearts  of  his  generation,  and  they  had  a  decisive  in- 
fluence on  the  form  of  his  Messianic  predictions. 

The  familiar  prophecy  concerning  the  birth  of 
Immanuel,  contained  in  the  seventh  chapter  was  de- 
signed to  answer  the  question  regarding  the  ex- 
perience of  Messiah.  It  was  projected  on  the  dark 
background  of  poHtical  intrigue  and  maladminis- 
tration that  had  characterized  the  reign  of  Ahaz. 
Threatened  with  invasion  from  his  northern  neigh- 
bors, Ahaz,  against  Isaiah's  advice  had  made  a 
treaty  with  Assyria,  as  destructive  of  Hebrew  hopes 
as  was  the  treaty  of  Brest-Litovsk  to  Russia.  Isaiah 
understood  what  serious  consequences  would  follow 
this  foolish  alliance ;  he  also  realized  how  it  would 
influence  the  believing  remnant.  They  were  caught 
in  a  terrible  predicament;  hardship,  suffering  and 
even  death  awaited  them;  besides  their  spiritual  ex- 
pectations were  completely  frustrated.  Here  was 
a  weak  and  wicked  ruler,  leaguing  himself  with 
pagan  powers,  adopting  foreign  gods  from  Damas- 
cus and  Phoenicia,  and  ready  for  the  sake  of  tem- 
porary peace  to  expose  the  nation  to  final  destruc- 
tion. What  could  the  godly  do  in  such  a  time? 
To  whom  could  they  turn  for  support?  And  to 
them  in  this  critical  hour  the  prophet  came  with 
the  great  conception  of  Immanuel,  God-with-us. 
Recall  for  a  moment,  Isaiah's  doctrine  of  holiness, 
as   an  all-pervading  atmosphere  —  a  devouring  fire 


170  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

that  burned  round  men  and  nations  and  things  — 
and  you  can  understand  with  what  fear  and 
trembling  the  spiritually  sensitive  people  would  re- 
gard the  doings  of  Ahaz,  whose  pagan  alliances 
seemed  to  expose  Zion  to  a  tempest  of  destructive 
fire.  They  wanted  assurance  of  protection  and 
safety,  but  most  of  all  encouragement  in  order  to  en- 
dure the  hardships  of  that  terrible  time.  But  this 
was  just  their  difficulty:  for  God  could  not 
sympathize  with  them  unless  He  came  in  contact 
with  their  experience,  and  how  could  He  do  this  un- 
less He  shared  their  afflictions?  God's  omnipotence 
was  of  course  a  familiar  postulate  of  Hebrew 
theology ;  Isaiah's  teaching  had  given  them  a  fresh 
sense  of  the  awful,  active  holiness ;  but  these  attri- 
butes —  elements  in  the  Divine  glory  —  seemed  to 
render  the  idea  of  suffering  in  God  unthinkable. 
Suffering  was  clearly  weakness,  and  this  was  incon- 
sistent with  omnipotence ;  it  might  also  be  a  form 
of  punishment  and  how  could  this  be  reconciled  with 
the  Divine  holiness? 

Such  thinking  was  too  painful  for  them,  and  they 
brought  the  problem  to  Isaiah,  who  met  it  with  the 
doctrine  that  God  intended  to  enter  into  the  closest 
possible  contact  with  the  human  race.  He  would 
become  an  experimental  partaker  in  its  natural 
weaknesses :  be  born  a  helpless  babe,  grow  up  among 
them  as  a  tender  plant.  His  nourishment  should 
be  "  butter  and  honey,"  the  food  of  the  poor  and 


THE  THREE  QUESTIONS  171 

the  oppressed  —  a  wonderful  revelation  in  that  early 
age.  The  Jew  did  not  fully  understand  this 
doctrine  until  after  the  Babylonian  exile;  but  its 
essence  is  in  this  prophecy  of  Isaiah.  By  taking 
His  share  in  the  sufferings  of  the  race  God  becomes 
a  place  of  broad  rivers  and  streams :  a  Judge,  Law- 
giver, and  King  —  essentially  a  Deliverer  and 
Savior. 

All  practical  thinking  about  God  should  begin 
here,  for  life  as  we  know  it  is  three-parts  pain ;  and 
the  most  realistic  contacts  between  the  human  and 
Divine  nature  are  made  through  the  medium  of 
sacrificial  experience.  If  our  conception  of  God  is 
formal  and  abstract,  it  is  because  we  have  ignored 
those  attractive  human  elements  which  are  mani- 
fested in  the  incarnation.  In  Jesus  Christ  God  has 
joined  the  caravan  of  our  life  for  weal  or  woe,  and 
cannot  be  separated  from  us  until  He  has  brought 
forth  judgment  unto  victory.  How  near  and  com- 
prehensible He  becomes  when  it  is  recognized  that 
there  is  no  pain  or  agony  of  the  human  spirit,  but 
that  He  knows  it  already,  and  that  through  the 
most  effective  of  mediums  —  experience.  This 
great  truth,  that  God  can  and  does  suffer  with  and 
for  man,  Isaiah  brought  home  to  the  hearts  of  his 
generation  —  this  amazing  message  concerning  a 
little  child  who  should  become  "  Wonderful  Coun- 
selor, Prince  of  Peace,  Mighty  God  and  Savior." 

The  second  question  concerning  the  character  of 


17^  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

the  great  leader  Isaiah  answered  with  the  prophecy 
of  Messiah's  spiritual  endowment  contained  in  the 
eleventh  chapter.  This  prediction  follows  closely 
that  of  the  final  destruction  of  Assyria.  It  is  easy 
to  see  that  the  declaration  of  Assyria's  approaching 
collapse  aroused  the  keenest  interest  among  the  de- 
vout. It  was  a  demonstration  of  the  power  of  Isaiah's 
ruling  conception  that  God  was  active,  dynamic 
holiness  —  an  atmosphere  of  fire,  burning  round 
men  and  nation  and  things.  Assyria  was  doomed 
because  she  was  unreal;  but  how  would  it  fare  with 
the  people  of  Judah?  Could  they  live  in  the  holy 
fire?  Could  they  dwell  amid  the  everlasting  burn- 
ings? Such  thoughts  were  calculated  to  disturb  the 
most  sincere  and  faithful  people.  A  great  fear  took 
hold  of  them,  a  dread  of  reality  such  as  the  prophet 
himself  had  experienced  on  that  vision  day  long 
ago  when  he  saw  the  Lord.  In  the  year  that  king 
Uzziah  died  Isaiah  had  learned  the  difference  be- 
tween the  nation  and  a  Divine  kingdom ;  he  discov- 
ered the  distinction  between  religion  and  patriotic 
devotion ;  above  all  he  was  made  to  feel  the  unlike- 
ness  of  God  to  the  stereotyped  conceptions  of  the 
popular  theology.  God  was  essential  reality;  the 
whole  earth  was  full  of  manifested  holiness  —  this 
all-consuming,  unescapable  fire  that  determined  the 
nature  of  reality  for  men  and  nations.  He  felt  his 
utter  unfitness  to  live  in  such  a  world,  and  from  it 
issued  a  supreme  need  of  a  deliverer,  a  savior. 


THE  THREE  QUESTIONS  173 

What  Isaiah  experienced  in  vision,  the  people  of 
Judah  realized  by  the  slow  progress  of  events.  The 
approaching  destruction  of  Assyria  seems  to  have 
roused  this  dread  of  the  future  to  its  maximum 
power.  How  could  they  hope  to  live  in  the  great 
fire?  And  if  they  were  unfit  to  survive,  was  not  the 
finding  of  a  savior  a  prime  necessity?  Isaiah  had 
promised  such  a  deliverer  in  the  person  of  the 
Messiah.  It  was  a  very  consoling  thought  to  re- 
member that  He  would  come  into  contact  with  man 
through  participation  in  his  sufferings ;  but  it  was 
not  enough  to  believe  that  Messiah  understood 
human  life;  the  deeper  question  was:  Can  He  live 
above  man's  life  and  limitations?  If  He  is  to  save 
those  who  are  utterly  unfit  to  dwell  in  the  everlast- 
ing burnings,  can  He  himself  survive?  This  is  a 
supreme  necessity  for  every  awakened  soul:  not  only 
to  be  assured  of  the  likeness  of  the  deliverer  to  man, 
but  also  to  be  convinced  that  He  is  unlike  man  in 
those  very  attributes  that  fit  Him  for  living  in  har- 
mony with  God;  and  Isaiah  met  the  need  with  the 
great  prophecy  concerning  Messiah's  spiritual  endow- 
ment. The  essential  truth  in  this  prophecy  is  the 
assertion  that  the  fire  of  holiness  is  the  very  breath 
of  Messiah's  life.  He  lives  in  the  atmosphere  of 
righteousness,  because  He  is  in  perfect  harmony  with 
it.  What  is  holiness  but  to  feel  God's  reality ;  to 
feel  it  in  some  deep,  elemental  sense,  as  the  founda- 
tion of  peace  and  safety?     The  absence  of  a  sense 


174  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

of  harmony  with  God  is  the  source  of  all  human 
anxieties.  It  was  this  urgent  necessity  for  peace 
that  brought  Isaiah's  generation  to  the  point  where 
it  could  comprehend  the  essential  fitness  of  the 
Messiah  for  the  role  of  deliverer.  The  Messiah 
commands  the  spiritual  world;  He  is  not  only  able 
to  dwell  in  it,  but  He  is  fitted  to  enable  others  to 
dwell  there  also  —  this  is  the  essence  of  Isaiah's 
teaching.  It  must  have  been  a  consoling  thought 
for  his  generation,  as  it  is  for  ours ;  for  our  con- 
fidence in  the  fitness  of  Christ  to  save  us,  is  based 
not  simply  upon  His  experimental  participation  in 
our  life,  but  also  upon  the  perception  of  His  es- 
sential difference  from  us,  the  sense  of  His  perfect 
harmony  with  God.  It  is  the  apprehension  of  His 
holiness  that  enables  us  to  believe  in  His  love.  It 
was  Isaiah's  identification  of  the  Messiah  with  God 
in  the  highest  of  His  attributes,  that  enabled  him  to 
give  to  the  devout  people  of  his  time  a  most  power- 
ful and  personal  motive  for  obedience.  They  were 
made  to  realize  that  their  strength  and  peace  did 
not  rest  upon  an  impersonal  foundation,  but  upon 
fellowship  with  a  God  who  was  to  become  increas- 
ingly real  to  them  as  their  faith  was  concentrated 
on  the  coming  Redeemer. 

But  a  third  question  remained:  How  would 
Messiah's  power  reveal  itself,  and  what  effect  would 
it  have  on  human  society?  This  question  is  an- 
swered in  the  great  prophecy  of  the  thirty  second 


THE  THREE  QUESTIONS  175 

chapter.  The  Messiah  shall  be  unto  men  "  the 
shadow  of  a  great  rock  in  a  weary  land."  George 
Adam  Smith's  description  of  this  phrase  is  very  sug- 
gestive: In  Palestine  where  the  fertile  land  joins 
the  desert  you  often  see  this  thing:  some  early  spring 
day  a  playful  breeze  will  bring  a  seed  out  of  the 
deep,  cool  forest  and  drop  it  into  a  little  patch  of 
fertile  soil,  on  the  edge  of  the  desert.  The  seed 
takes  root,  and  becomes  a  little  plant,  pushing  its 
glad  way  up  through  the  soil  with  the  promise  of 
life.  And  then  what  happens?  There  comes  a 
wind  —  it  may  be  the  sirocco,  it  may  be  the  Mediter- 
ranean breeze  —  and  drifts  the  sand  slowly  but 
surely  over  the  little  plant,  and  smothers  out  its 
young  life.  But  if  you  set  a  rock  there  on  the  edge 
of  the  desert,  and  drop  the  seed  behind  it,  it  will 
grow  just  the  same;  but  when  the  sand  drifts,  the 
rock  will  catch  it  on  its  unsheltered  side,  and  the 
plant  will  become  a  great  tree.  That  is  a  picture 
of  the  Messiah's  tender  and  thoughtful  ministry. 
There  is  too  much  glare  and  glitter  in  the  world ; 
too  much  exposure  of  sensitive  surfaces  to  alien  in- 
fluences. What  men  need  is  protection  and  shelter 
in  the  formative  stages  of  life.  Isaiah's  disciples 
felt  this  need  keenly.  They  were  ready  for  the 
ordeal  by  fire ;  but  the}"  dreaded  a  too  sudden  appli- 
cation of  its  tremendous  heat ;  what  they  wanted 
was  something  that  would  temper  purging  ministries 
with  kindness  and  compassion.     The  Messiah  by  His 


176  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

love  and  consideration  would  be  unto  them  a  great 
rock  in  a  weary  land.  In  His  strength  they  should 
find  shelter  and  quiet.  The  practical  ministries  of 
Christ  have  abundantly  fulfilled  this  prophecy. 
One  of  the  most  destructive  forces  of  life  is  a  recol- 
lection of  a  past  blunder.  The  world  quickly  for- 
gets our  virtues,  but  has  a  long  memory  for  our 
falls.  What  would  have  become  of  Simon  Peter, 
who  denied  his  Lord  because  he  was  afraid  of  the 
chattering  tongue  of  a  servant  girl,  had  it  not  been 
for  the  protecting  shadow  of  a  great  love?  The 
Savior  put  Himself  between  Peter's  memory  and 
Peter's  sin,  and  he  could  never  after  think  of  his 
fall  without  thinking  of  Christ.  This  was  Isaiah's 
conception  of  the  tenderness  and  consideration  of 
redeeming  love. 

The  ideal  of  the  promised  leader,  wrought  partly 
from  the  prophet's  intuitions,  and  partly  from  the 
urgent  questioning  of  the  people  became  the 
standard  by  which  to  test  the  political  and  religious 
leadership  of  the  time.  Isaiah's  disciples  were  re- 
sponsible members  of  the  chosen  race,  they  had  posi- 
tive relations  to  both  church  and  state:  how  then 
were  they  to  judge  their  rulers?  What  were  they 
to  think  of  politics?  How  estimate  the  worth  of 
social  remedies?  Above  all  else  what  were  they  to 
think  of  world  movements  in  relation  to  their  re- 
ligious destiny?  In  these  prophecies,  Isaiah  lifts 
the  mind  of  his  generation  above  the  low  level  of 


THE  THREE  QUESTIONS  177 

political  expediency  to  contemplate  the  permanent 
gains  that  were  coming  out  of  the  trials  and  tribu- 
lations of  the  time.  In  the  world  convulsions  God 
was  proving  Himself  an  active,  militant  holiness,  a 
devouring  and  cleansing  fire;  but  He  will  not  leave 
the  nation  comfortless  or  without  leadership ;  the 
Messiah  shall  be  one  of  the  people,  closely  identified 
with  their  sufferings  and  hardships,  yet  capable  not 
only  of  dwelling  in  the  fire  that  was  to  determine 
the  reality  of  all  created  things,  but  able  to  cause 
others  to  live  in  it  also;  knowledge  of  whose 
character  would  fix  the  standard  of  value  for  all 
practical  affairs. 

Under  the  influence  of  this  Mighty  Personality 
one's  view  of  life  would  be  brought  into  harmony 
with  truth :  "  the  eyes  of  them  that  see  shall  not  be 
dim,  and  the  ears  of  them  that  hear  shall  hearken. 
The  heart  also  of  the  rash  shall  understand  knowl- 
edge, and  the  tongue  of  the  stammerers  shall  be 
ready  to  speak  plainly." 

History  bears  this  out.  Martin  Luther  did  not 
cause  the  reformation ;  there  were  multitudes  all  over 
Christendom  that  wanted  a  change ;  but  they  spoke  of 
it  with  stammering  tongues  because  they  could  not 
think  clearly ;  they  had  no  courage  until  the  iron- 
jawed  monk  stood  up  before  the  world  and  uttered 
the  great  word  that  coordinated  their  thoughts  and 
loosed  their  tongues.  Luther  taught  the  stammerer 
to  speak  plainly.     This  was  Isaiah's  service  to  his 


178  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

generation.  The  Messiah  was  coming,  be  it  soon 
or  late;  and  under  the  influence  of  this  glorious  ex- 
pectation the  people  attained  to  a  clearer  under- 
standing of  the  times,  and  were  enabled  to  look 
beyond  the  tumult  of  nations  and  the  fall  of 
dynasties  to  the  advent  of  a  permanent  kingdom, 
in  which  all  spiritual  aspirations  should  be  realized. 
What  is  our  generation  to  make  of  these  things? 
We  have  gained  from  our  study  of  Isaiah  and  his 
times,  a  simplified  conception  of  the  Almighty;  he 
has  taught  us  to  think  of  God  as  an  active,  dynamic 
holiness  —  an  atmosphere  of  fire  that  determines  the 
reality  of  all  created  things.  Autocratic  Germany 
has  fallen  because  she  could  not  live  in  the  devour- 
ing flame;  the  Allied  nations  and  the  United  States 
have  so  far  been  permitted  to  survive  because  there 
was  in  the  purposes  of  those  peoples  an  inde- 
structible deposit  of  moral  reality.  Passionate 
moral  principle  determined  the  issue  of  the  struggle ; 
it  sustained  the  morale  of  the  nations  during  four 
years  of  exceptional  hardships ;  and  it  is  impossible 
to  resist  the  conviction  that  this  moral  passion 
was  due  to  the  direct  influence  of  Christianity  on 
Western  civilization.  It  has  been  a  holy  war,  in- 
volving many  fundamental  truths  of  religion.  What 
is  national  honor?  What  is  right  and  what  is 
wrong?  What  are  sanctions  for  governments? 
What  is  the  nature  and  value  of  personal  sacrifice? 
All  these  questions  directed  the  mind  into  religious 


THE  THREE  QUESTIONS  179 

channels ;  and  the  effort  to  answer  them  by  personal 
dedication  to  the  cause  led  to  something  like  a  re- 
ligious experience.  All  that  was  implied  in  the  as- 
sertion of  the  righteousness  of  our  cause  was  a  con- 
fession of  faith  in  the  fundamental  truth  that  only 
the  real  can  last ;  and  that  reality  was  in  every  case 
to  be  determined  by  moral  relationships. 

But  are  we  aware  of  the  implications  of  such  a 
belief?  For  if  the  successful  issue  of  the  war  has 
demonstrated  the  power  of  right  over  wrong,  it  has 
done  so  only  because  there  is  a  ruling  Providence  in 
the  world  that  makes  it  so.  Moral  experiences  of 
this  elemental  character  bring  individuals  into  direct 
relations  with  God.  It  was  true  in  Isaiah's  time ;  it 
is  true  to-dsLY.  If  the  dynamic  holiness  of  God 
determines  the  life  of  nations,  it  also  conditions  the 
life  of  individuals.  Whether  we  like  it  or  not,  we 
are  obliged  to  live  in  the  atmosphere  of  fire ;  and 
only  the  real  can  survive  it. 

Survival  in  such  an  atmosphere  may  be  of  two 
kinds.  We  may  live  in  it  if  we  are  fit  for  it ;  or 
lacking  this,  we  may  survive  if  we  find  a  redeemer 
who  can.  This  is  the  meaning  of  Isaiah's  Messianic 
prophecies.  The  supreme  necessity  for  people  in  his 
time  was  personal  religion.  The  moral  urgencies  of 
their  experience  forced  them  to  realize  the  need  for 
a  Savior;  they  wanted  closer  relations  with  God 
which  could  only  be  gained  through  a  Mediator  and 
Friend.     Some  such  experience  has  come  to  our  gen- 


180  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

eration.  Once  more  the  grave  question  rises  in  the 
human  heart:  How  shall  we  live  in  the  cleansing 
fire?  How  shall  we  survive  the  devouring  flame? 
What  is  our  answer  going  to  be? 

Modern  indifference  to  personal  religion  has  been 
due  in  great  measure  to  ignorance  of  God's  nature; 
for  without  belief  in  the  holy  significance  of  life, 
it  is  not  worth  while  to  talk  about  a  Savior.  But 
once  let  men  become  aware  of  the  holy  atmosphere 
that  surrounds  this  planet,  and  realize  their  unfitness 
to  live  in  it,  and  the  need  for  a  Savior  becomes  im- 
perative. 

The  war  has  taught  us  the  monstrous  power  of 
evil  which  the  advance  of  civilization  and  the  safe- 
guards of  intelligence  have  not  been  able  to  check. 
If  the  Allied  nations  had  been  without  moral  prin- 
ciple, they  would  have  lost  the  war;  but  now  this 
principle  has  turned  upon  the  individual  life  and  be- 
come a  standard  of  criticism  for  the  self.  The 
dangerous  possibilities  in  human  nature  have  set 
many  on  fresh  quests  for  peace  and  safety ;  there  is  a 
general  feeling  that  such  may  be  satisfied  in  closer  re- 
lations with  God.  On  the  whole  the  awakening  due 
to  the  war  has  brought  to  our  generation  a  great 
but  fleeting  opportunity ;  our  permanent  gains  will 
depend  upon  whether  we  appreciate  what  God  has 
done  to  save  the  world  from  itself.  The  times  are 
bringing  us  face  to  face  with  Jesus  Christ.  The 
heart  of  His   gospel  is   suffering  for   others  —  the 


THE  THREE  QUESTIONS  181 

sacrifice  of  the  One  for  the  benefit  of  the  many ;  and 
the  sacrificial  experiences  of  the  war  have  enabled  us 
to  comprehend  the  fundamental  appeal  of  the  Chris- 
tian religion. 

We  have  an  opportunity  of  learning  how  to  under- 
stand the  sacrifice  of  Christ  for  the  sins  of  the  world. 
"  Without  the  shedding  of  blood  there  is  no  remis- 
sion." This  means  that  without  the  sacrifice  of  life 
no  evil  thing  can  be  put  away.  The  pathway  along 
which  all  the  moral  and  spiritual  benefits  of  the  race 
have  come  is  marked  by  the  graves  of  those  who 
lived  and  died  for  the  right.  Without  shedding  of 
blood,  there  is  no  remission  —  this  is  the  message 
of  the  casualty  lists.  Our  young  men  have  given 
their  lives  for  us ;  they  have  made  the  world  safe 
for  democracy ;  but  this  does  not  save  the  world  from 
its  sins.  The  terrible  outbreak  in  the  German  state 
was  but  a  manifestation  of  the  power  of  evil  over 
human  nature.  The  shedding  of  patriot  blood  has 
put  away  an  economic  evil;  but  Christ  alone  can 
deal  with  the  fundamental  cause,  which  is  sin  — 
alienation  from  God.  The  blood  of  our  young  men 
is  calling  loudly  from  the  fields  of  France,  to  the 
living,  to  put  at  the  service  of  the  nation  during  the 
reconstruction  period  the  same  spirit  of  sacrifice  and 
devotion ;  but  above  all  else  it  calls  us  to  consider 
how  we  can  fundamentally  remove  the  cause  which 
produces  such  evil  eflfects  on  states  and  peoples ; 
and  only  faith  in  the  sacrificial  power  of  the  Son 


182  THE  CONSUMING  FIRE 

of  God  can  accomplish  that.  This  urgently  re- 
quires the  examination  of  motives  and  purposes; 
especially  does  it  compel  us  to  think  of  ourselves  as 
spirits,  fronting  eternity,  with  primary  responsibili- 
ties to  God. 

Jesus  Christ  died  on  the  cross  to  make  the  world 
safe  for  our  souls.  Through  Him  alone  can  we  be 
reconciled  to  God  and  fitted  to  live  in  the  consuming 
fires  of  His  holiness. 

Great  believers  are  the  hope  of  the  world  in  a 
time  of  social  readjustment.  F.  S.  Oliver  has 
spoken  of  "  some  rare  occasions  scattered  through 
history,  where  as  if  by  a  common  impulse,  humanity 
has  paused  in  its  work,  and,  leaning  on  its  spade, 
has  looked  round  bewildered  by  a  sudden  hopeful- 
ness ;  aware  dimly  that  something  fortunate  has 
happened,  that  a  new  man  has  appeared  in  the  world, 
and  that  he  is  a  friend."  This  is  a  fine  description 
of  the  present  temper  of  peoples.  Multitudes  in  all 
nations  are  seeking  a  larger  self-expression  in  demo- 
cratic forms  of  government.  The  stabilizing  in- 
fluence in  a  democracy  has  always  issued  from  the 
spirit  of  the  people  whose  sacrificial  purposes 
furnished  sanctions  for  government  and  maintained 
respect  for  constituted  authority.  This  spirit  is 
always  found  in  a  certain  class  —  the  typical 
product  of  God.  The  Christian  is  and  always  has 
been  this  kind  of  man.  Under  his  influence  the  eyes 
of  them  that  see  shall  not  be  dim:  the  ears  of  them 


THE  THREE  QUESTIONS  183 

that  hear  shall  hearken ;  the  heart  also  of  the  rash 
shall  understand  knowledge,  and  the  tongue  of  the 
stammerers  shall  be  ready  to  speak  plainly ;  and  if 
this  generation  is  to  deserve  the  benefits  that  have 
come  to  it  through  the  sacrifice  of  others ;  if  we  are 
going  to  keep  the  world  a  fit  place  in  which  to  live, 
we  must  give  fundamental  effect  to  the  precepts  of 
the  Christian  religion  in  the  domain  of  public  service, 
as  well  as  in  the  sphere  of  private  life.  Where- 
fore, seeing  that  we  face  such  grave  responsibilities, 
"  let  us  have  grace,  whereby  we  may  serve  God  ac- 
ceptably with  reverence  and  godly  fear:  for  our  God 
is  a  consuming  fire." 


THE    END 


PEIKTED    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES    OF    AMERICA 


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Princeton  Theological  Semmsry-Speer  Library 


1    1012  01035  8507 


